LOS ANGELES — Paul Walker’s daughter is suing Porsche, claiming the sports car that her father was in when he was killed two years ago suffered from numerous design defects.
The lawsuit filed Monday by Meadow Rain Walker, 16, seeks unspecified damages for defects that her lawyers claim kept the actor trapped in the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT when it crashed and burst into flames in November 2013. The crash also killed race car driver Roger Rodas, 38.
The suit claims the car, which was marketed as a street-legal race car, lacked a proper stability control system and safeguards to protect occupants and keep it from catching fire after a collision. Meadow Walker alleges that her father didn’t die from the impact of the crash, but instead was burned alive when the car caught fire afterwards and he couldn’t escape due to a broken seat belt.
This suit comes more than a year after Rodas’ wife filed a suit against the luxury car company. She cited negligence as the cause of death of her husband, and claimed product liability and wrongful death as the reasons for the suit.
Kristine Rodas’ complaint said her husband was driving as a an “ultra-high-performance-super-sports car for the road,” that goes from zero to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and has a top speed of 205 miles per hour. The complaint argues that such a high-powered sports car should have a higher standard of crash protection, and that a mechanical malfunction forced Rodas to veer off the road.
An email sent to representatives of Porsche North America was not immediately returned.
The lawsuit was first reported Monday by celebrity website TMZ.
Walker’s death occurred on a break in the filming of “Furious 7,” the latest sequel in the “Fast & Furious” franchise.
With additional reporting from CNN.
