A Porsche employee came under fire after he joked about the news of crashes involving the model of car Paul Walker died in, saying that such incidents would be “good news” for the company as it would boost the value of the remaining cars, TMZ reported late Wednesday.
New court documents presented during Meadow Walker’s wrongful death lawsuit against Porsche over her father’s November 2013 accident revealed that the car company concealed emails about the Carrera. The “Fast and Furious” star died when a 2005 Carrera GT being driven by his friend, Roger Rodas, went out of control on a city street in Valencia, near Los Angeles, and burst into flames after hitting a power pole.
“I thought this might interest you. Another Carrera GT bites the dust as a bodyshop mechanic who claimed he was going less than 30MPH smashed into a telephone pole. Looks like he was going more than thirty to me!!!” the email reportedly read. “I was curious about a statistic that was mentioned to me and if anyone knows if it is accurate. Total worldwide production of the Carrera GT was 1280 and to date over 200 of them were already totaled… This would be great news to the remaining owners as the GT becomes more rare. Anyone know if these numbers are accurate?”
Jeffrey L. Milam, the lawyer representing the Walker family, said in a statement that the newly discovered documents are evidence that Porsche knew the GT is “dangerous,” and accused the company of hiding “damaging evidence.”
“We have learned that Porsche has hidden damaging evidence knowing it knew its Carrera GT — the car that killed Paul Walker — was dangerous and unsafe,” Milam reportedly said. “Porsche concealed this information from the public to protect its image and brand.
“Any ethical company would have withdrawn the car from the market — or, at the very least, warned the public about its dangers, particularly since Porsche had deliberately left its touted Porsche Stability System off this model,” Milam continued. “Instead, Porsche management did nothing but make callous jokes in internal emails about how this would improve the value of the remaining cars. The company has been caught trying to hide those email along with the names of potential witnesses.”
New evidence against Porsche was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday requesting the judge to charge Porsche for allegedly hiding the emails on purpose.
Porsche did not respond to TMZ’s request to comment on the latest incident.
Meadow filed a lawsuit against Porsche in September 2015 claiming that the vehicle in which her father and his friend were in was licensed for use on the road and was capable of a top speed of 205 miles per hour, yet “lacked safety features that are found on well-designed racing cares 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.”
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