A US District Court judge has found that Porsche wasn’t responsible for the Carrera GT crash that killed
Roger Rodas and actor
Paul Walker, according to
The Detroit News citing the
Associated Press. Rodas’ widow, Kristine, brought the lawsuit against the German automaker, but the court ruled there was a lack of evidence for her case.
“Plaintiff has provided no competent evidence that Rodas’ death occurred as a result of any wrongdoing on the part of defendant,” US District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez ruled, according to the
AP. Rodas’ lawyer pledged to appeal the decision.
Rodas’ lawsuit asserted
that the Carrera GT’s right rear suspension failed and also cited the Porsche’s lack of a proper fuel cell or a crash cage as factors. However, the judge didn’t see any evidence for the suspension failure. He also criticized the expert for Rodas’ side for analyzing tire marks from over a month after the crash rather than the photos from right after the incident, the
AP reports.
A 2014 investigation by the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department blamed
unsafe speed as the fatal accident’s cause. The investigators reported that the Carrera GT was doing between 80 and 93 miles per hour when the crash happened. They also found nothing mechanically wrong with the supercar but did discover that the tires were over nine years old. The LA County Coroner ruled that both deaths were accidents.
According to the
AP, the lawsuits from
Walker’s daughter and
his father against Porsche are still pending in Los Angeles Superior Court, and the district court ruling doesn’t affect them. In each case, Porsche denied being at fault and cited the sheriff’s investigation as support for that argument.
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