The family was not forced to sue. Paul Walker's daughter, Meadow, is the one who brought the suit. Now Roger Rodas widow sued Porsche and lost in September of last year. The judge in that case stated that Roda's widow failed to plead her case that the Carrera GT should be equipped with “more extensive crash safety features than typical road cars because racecars operate at extremely high speeds and drivers routinely maneuver in risky ways, resulting in higher occurrences of both crashes generally and of severe crashes. But the judge also ruled that she had cognizable claims for design defects, relating to “the suspension component, the crash cage, and the fuel cell,” and those causes of action for liability will proceed in litigation. Meadow Walker's lawsuit states that "the vehicle lacked safety features that are found on well-designed racing cars or even Porsche's least expensive road cars -- features that could have prevented the accident or, at a minimum, allowed Paul Walker to survive the crash." The court document contends the 2005 Carrera GT should have come with an electronic stability control system to protect against swerving. The car also lacked adequate side door reinforcement bars and had defective rubber fuel lines, according to the lawsuit. There also seems to be a dispute about the speed of the vehicle at the time of the crash. The initial report that I heard put the speed at 80 to 93 miles an hour. The coroners report put the speed at about 100 miles an hour. The family's investigators put the speed between 40 and 60 miles an hour. At this point take your pick. I guess we'll have to see what happens with this lawsuit, but I could have told anybody that there were going to be lawsuits concerning these deaths. If you ever get a chance to read about this particular car you will see what I mean. The car has a funky history and the way it is described is bit confusing. Go to a website called Road and Track.com. It gives you some idea about the car and how it was built. What I've gotten out of it was that it was race car for the road, but when you read about the way it handled you are kind of scratching your head a little bit. That might be why Porsche keeps getting sued. I don't know and its just a tragedy all the way around.
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