Paul Walker's Tragic Crash Explained

On the 12th of September this year, Paul Walker would have celebrated his 50th birthday, if it wasn't for his crash on the 30th of November 2013.

Paul and his friend, Roger Rodas, a successful racing driver, and financial planner, had both spent the day at a charity fundraiser. It was for Reach out Worldwide, a charity Paul founded, and worked alongside Roger on.
It was an event to raise money for the victims of the devastating typhoon Haiyan which had tore through southeast Asia, and was being hosted at Always Evolving, a performance car shop run by the pair.

After spending much of the day hanging out at the event, they headed off at about half 3 that afternoon, leaving in Roger's beautiful cherry red Porsche Carrera GT.
According to sources connected to the shop, Roger's Porsche was having some mechanical issues, and was constantly stalling. Based on this, it's assumed the pair went out on a quick drive to test the car out and
see if they could figure out what was up with it.

The Carrera GT already had a reputation at this point, after a number of notable drivers including Jay Leno found difficulty in controlling the infamous supercar. It's known by many today as the last true supercar - a mid engine V10 paired to a manual gearbox, carbon fibre everywhere, and absolutely no electronic stability control. It was a recipe for a legendary car, but also a dangerous one.

Paul and Roger sped through Santa Clarita, in California. After around 20 minutes, they drove back to the shop. They were heading down Hercules Street, in Valencia, less than a mile from the shop when disaster struck.
They were going between 80 and 90mph through a 45 zone,
when the pair lost control and crashed. They smashed into a lamp post and two trees, mangling the car into a barely recognisable shape, before catching fire. Both Roger and Paul tragically lost their lives in the collision,
but Roger was arguably more lucky. He had passed away from the severe trauma of the impact. Paul on the other hand, was still alive momentarily and was subjected to the blazing inferno which burnt them and the car to a crisp. By the time authorities were able to tame the roaring fire,
little was left. The pair had to be identified from dental records.

Onlookers frantically looked for hoses and any water they could find
to put the fire out, but it was too late.

And with that, the pair's time on earth had come to a close.
Beyond just being Brian in Fast and Furious, Paul was able to offer so much more to the world. Through his relentless charitable work and commitment to car culture, Walker's legacy will forever be a part of history.

Roger Rodas is often forgotten in the midst of all this,
due to Walker being considerably more famous, but it's hardly like Rodas didn't have some astounding accomplishments of his own.
He was a successful racing driver, philanthropist, entrepreneur and a well recognized talented financial adviser.

With a crash of this magnitude with a number of unanswered questions,
it's not surprising that the aftermath was riddled with theories,
allegations and lawsuits.

Paul's daughter, meadow, received a 10.1 million dollar settlement from the Rodas estate. This claim was made due to an agreement Roger was "partly to blame" for the crash.

There are also the Porsche lawsuits.
Three different people connected to the accident all filed suits against the
company, Meadow being one of them.
The other two were filed by Roger's widow, Kristine,
and Paul Walker's dad.
Paul's dad also sued the Rodas family in 2014, after claims they had some of Paul's
cars in their possession.

Kristine lost her lawsuit against Porsche, which claimed the crash was due to suspension failure.
Two years after Meadow filed her Porsche lawsuit, it came to a close and they resolved the settlement.
Meadow's lawsuit was different, and claimed her father was trapped in the car due to being trapped by
a faulty seatbelt, and also claimed known stability issues were to blame.
Interestingly, she also claimed they were not driving at 80-90mph, and instead said
it was between 63 and 71.

Paul's father sued them over negligence and "wrongful death".

Porsche still denies any wrongdoing, and attributes the crash to misuse of the vehicle
and excessive speed.

On top of the barrage of lawsuits, there were still a number of questions
around exactly what caused the crash in the first place.

Just about every possible cause has been considered
but here are the most notable theories.

A law enforcement official put it down to "speed alone", after they found no mechanical
faults, or debris on the road.
There were tyre marks from the Porsche down the road, which indicated they were going too fast.

There was also a theory that they had been racing another car down the road, when they crashed.
This had been debunked, and proven to not be true.