Paul Walker would have celebrated his 51st birthday on September 12.
However, the actor tragically lost his life in a high-speed crash on Saturday, November 30, 2013.
Initially, it was believed that the Fast And Furious star died instantly, but the post-mortem revealed the horrifying circumstances surrounding his death. Paul and his mate Roger Rodas decided to take the actor’s cherry red Porsche Carrera GT for a spin after hosting a charity fundraiser for Typhoon Yolanda in Santa Clarita, Los Angeles.
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They were seen driving at an “unsafe” speed between 70 and 100mph before the car spiralled out of control and hit a lamppost, bursting into flames. Onlookers tried to extinguish the fiery inferno, but it was too late.
Paul was found in a “pugilistic stance”, a condition where the body’s muscles contract due to heat, giving the limbs a “boxer-like” appearance. The Medical Dictionary explains this stance as “caused by high-temperatures in fire, resulting in muscle stiffening and shortening and can occur even if the person was dead before the fire”.
The severe burns left his skin so badly charred that identification was only possible through dental records, and his incinerated organs were unfit for tissue donation.
(Image: EPA)
The father-of-one was left with an array of multiple fractures, including breaks to his jaw, collarbone, left upper arm, ribs and pelvis.
In a macabre twist, soot particles were identified in the celeb’s windpipe – indicating he’d been breathing amidst the inferno.
Roger Rodas, Walker’s companion, suffered the grotesque fate of having the top of his skull shattered, revealing his brain tragically exposed.
Investigators found no alcohol or drugs in the system, leading the coroner to attribute death to the “combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries”.
Paul Walker’s distraught daughter Meadow then went on to sue Porsche for wrongful death, alleging that her father had lived for an agonising one minute and 20 seconds post-collision but couldn’t get free due to his seatbelt entrapment.
(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
TMZ got their hands on the lawsuit which blasted the seatbelt, which allegedly “snapped Walker’s torso back with thousands of pounds of force, thereby breaking his ribs and pelvis”, claiming the fire did not engulf the vehicle for over a minute after the crash, leaving time for an escape that never came.
It fiercely criticised the car for not having reinforced doors and lacking auto-severing fuel lines to avoid blaze post-crash.
“Absent these defects in the Porsche Carrera GT, Paul Walker would be alive today,” the lawsuit powerfully concluded.
Jeff Milam, Meadow’s attorney, vented to ABC News at the time: “The bottom line is that the Porsche Carrera GT is a dangerous car. It doesn’t belong on the street. And we shouldn’t be without Paul Walker or his friend, Roger Rodas.”
(Image: No credit)
Porsche hit back, insisting Paul “knowingly and voluntarily assumed all risk, perils and danger in respect to the use of the subject 2005 Carrera GT”.
The legal tussle was finally put to bed in 2017 when the wrongful death lawsuit was dropped, with the settlement details kept under wraps.
At the crash site, Paul’s friend Jim Thorp told press he’d spoken with Walker before he got into the Porsche with Rodas.
Thorp said Walker’s last words at the charity do were: “Hey, let’s go for a drive.”
He added of his friend: “He lived his life and he died fast and furious… He loved speed, he loved cars, and he had to die this way. He died in a very fast car with his friend.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
