December 4, 2013
"Walker died of the 'combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries'... Rodas died of "multiple traumatic injuries.'"
The coroner's report in the Paul Walker car crash. That slight difference in wording reveals a horrible difference in what each man experienced.
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42 comments:
I had to follow the link to find out what crash someone named Paul Walker was involved in. Was this news? Am I that out of touch with current events?
Ann,
These two guys believed the hype they made in their dream world of 'Fast & Furious".
They really thought they could go 100+ MPH down streets and nothing would happen to them.
Well the real world has a many ways to deal with people like that.
And right now Obama is finding out in his own way his utopia dream world is starting to crash and burn.
Funny in a way, both of these guys, Walker and Obama, had/have this very strong ideal of what they are but it's all based on fantasy.
Walker just went out in a blaze, Obama will go on in a whimper.
Read as "burned alive." Top 5 worst ways to go.
Paul,
It was reported today that the initial suggestion of drag-racing was wrong and they were traveling at an estimated 40-45 mph.
As for whether Walker suffered from the burns before he died, I doubt it. He was probably rendered unconscious by the impact injuries he suffered.
We can at least hope so.
The difference between a top professional racing driver and a talented, enthusiastic amateur is pretty small until something goes wrong with the car or something unexpected happens in front of it.
At the article, there's a lot about how that car is extremely powerful and notoriously difficult to control. It costs over $300,000. No one should be driving it without some special reason, but I think Walker -- whose image had to do with spectacular driving -- was going some public appearance (for charity).
I had never heard of him either until I heard that he died, but the movies are very popular and a lot of people cared about him.
Maybe it's like when people heard that James Dean had died in a car crash. Or Marc Bolan.
Call me demented, but the most amazing thing about the crash is still the "little tree" around which the car ended up wrapped. You can go on Google Earth and see what the tree looked like before. Its a very little tree.
"Was this news?"
Yes.
"Am I that out of touch with current events?"
Absolutely.
Paul Walker was not a typical Hollywood celebrity. He kept a low profile, did a ton of charity work and was currently raising money to help the Philippines deal with the recent typhoon. Roger Rodas was an ex-professional race car driver who owned a performance shop for sports cars who was also heavily involved in charity.
Too bad. Seemed like a nice guy.
The movies have some truly spectacular driving stunts and are worth seeing if you have an interest in spectacular driving stunts.......Here's the real irony. In the movies, Paul Walker's good looks were upstaged by the blunt force of Vin Diesel. In death, Paul Walker was upstaged by the Amtrak crash. A Porsche is to a railroad engine as Paul Walker is to Vin Diesel......It adds an extra layer of tragedy to a young celebrity's death when it is overshadowed by mass fatalities. I just hope that Kim Kardashian doesn't die on the day that Iran nukes one of its neighbors.
Never heard of him either. He was an ATF agent?
In death, Paul Walker was upstaged by the Amtrak crash.
What Amtrak crash?
(goes to look)
Oh. The if it happened in NYC it must be important mentality.
Unsafe at any speed: they were going 45 mph and hit a sapling, and both passengers died with one roasted to alive.
Roger Rodas (and family) went to my church. Good guy. He'll be missed.
"At the article, there's a lot about how that car is extremely powerful and notoriously difficult to control. It costs over $300,000."
Yeah, CNN's been banging the "death car" drum ever since the accident. I think they sense an opportunity to instigate and cause a furor (as opposed to soberly report the situation from an accumulation of facts).
"...I think Walker -- whose image had to do with spectacular driving -- was going some public appearance (for charity)."
Althouse,
In addition to being friends, Rodas and Walker were both competitive racers. Rodas was CEO of a business dedicated to customizing cars for racing and, if I recall correct Walker was an investor in that business. The shop sponsored a racing team and both men were members of it.
It was a charity event, but Walker's appearance was more than an image thing.
Even with the huge explosion and fireball, the little tree barely got burnt and still has its leaves.
"No one should be driving it without some special reason..."
Well... No one should be driving it without understanding how powerful and demanding the car is, true, but that's different than saying people must justify which car they choose to drive. Especially when a person - such as Roger Rodas - was gaining experience in the racecar driving ranks and, along with Walker, would be the sort of individual you'd normally say would have the experience and perspective to properly judge the appropriateness of driving such a vehicle.
It's true that such a spectacularly tuned car requires a great level of responsibility on the part of the driver to control, but neither Rodas nor Walker were any old driver off the streets.
"No one should be driving it without some special instruction..."
Presumably such a car does not drive or handle like an ordinary car, at least if you make use of its extraordinary capabilities.
It is, after all, lawful to fly an ultralight aircraft (during the day, outside of controlled airspace and away from heavily populated areas) with no instruction whatsoever. But not such a good idea.
Tibore,
I think you hit the nail on the head there.
A lot of people want this story to be "Hollywood Wannabe Dies Trying To Act Out Role In Real Life" or "Cars That Kill!"
The real story is that two responsible adult men voluntarily engaged in an activity was routine to both of them (driving a high-performance automobile a little bit fast) but still carried with it a little bit of risk.
Sometimes, a little bit of risk is enough.
I don't think burning to death is as bad as it may appear, principally because the fire consumes the local oxygen and thus anyone in the middle of it passes out rather quickly from that.
Still, hard to see that sort of damage going 45 mph unless he somehow hit the gas or something as it started to go out of control. Any very powerful RWD car can be a lot to handle.
Better to burn out, than to fade away?
Sounds like a good guy whose death is a shame. His movies aren't my style so I won't miss him myself, but still...decency in Hollywood is rare.
Big V10 engine in the rear. $445,000 Very dangerous and very fast. RIP.
I had never actually seen any of the movies until this summer when I saw the most recent one which inspired me to go back and watch a couple of the earlier ones. I liked Vin Diesel in the Riddick films and generally found the Fast and Furious movies to be pretty enjoyable.
From more recent accounts (which are probably more accurate than the earlier ones that suggested Paul Walker was drag racing like in the movies), it seems like these were both pretty decent men and my heart goes out to their friends, families and fans.
Supercars are incredibly robust machines. It's not a surprise that one of them survived the impact.
Paul Walker and "Fast and Furious", its as if I just came to earth having left the planet Don't Know and Don't Care.
From the article:
The Porsche Carrera GT the two men were in has three times the horsepower of the average car. It's powered by a V-10, 610-horsepower engine. At $450,000 new, it flies down the road and is notoriously difficult to handle.
The driver was the 6th owner of the car.
This is not a street car, period.
At the article, there's a lot about how that car is extremely powerful and notoriously difficult to control....No one should be driving it without some special reason.
What an obnoxious priggy statement. Who the hell are you to tell anyone else how he chooses to risk his life?
Hey, childbirth is freaking dangerous, there's the intrinsic awfulness of abortion and the tremendous social costs of unwanted childbirth -- so I think whether, how, and with whom women can have sex should be strictly regulated, so that nobody can make what the rest of us consider dangerous or foolish choices, or choices that put some innocent life (e.g. an unborn child) at risk. That OK?
These guys were doing what they wanted to do. If they'd killed someone else -- a child crossing the street, say, there'd at least be a case here, an argument. As it is, they only killed themselves, as they've a perfect right to do. They didn't even ding up the city's tree very much. And they'd probably be the first to offer to punch in the mouth anybody who said they should've been forbidden to get into the machine without a reason that satisfies someone else's value system.
You know what I want? One of those life bracelet thingies, the kind that identify you as an organ donor or allergic to morphine, only mine will say I'm a free man. I forbid you to use my tombstone for your soapbox. Go rent your own.
To echo what David just wrote, "street-legal" is not the same as "suitable for driving on the street." From everything I've read both men in the car were way above the run of the mill driver, but with some cars when things go wrong they go very, very wrong very, very quickly.
Paul was a great and a humble man.His body couldn't live,but his soul lives.
In death, Paul Walker was upstaged by the Amtrak crash.
Metro North Railroad, not Amtrak. Most of the train's journey had been on tracks used jointly by Amtrak, Metro North and CSX. The curve where the crash occurred is where the Metro North/CSX tracks diverge to the east, with the tracks continuing straight ahead being for Amtrak only.
Note: the engineer whose fatigue is the likely cause of the crash earns $150K per year.
Peter
Porches are apparently notorious for completely falling apart in accidents and not in a good way (meaning in a way that sheds energy without killing the occupants.) The irony being that if they'd been driving just about any common $20,000 sedan, they likely would have walked away with a few abrasions from the airbags.
Paul Walker and "Fast and Furious", its as if I just came to earth having left the planet Don't Know and Don't Care.
Would have behooved you to take a detour to Shouldn't Have Posted Any Comment Then.
Carl Pham-
"You know what I want? One of those life bracelet thingies, the kind that identify you as an organ donor or allergic to morphine, only mine will say I'm a free man. I forbid you to use my tombstone for your soapbox. Go rent your own "
Amen. I want one too.
Think of all the times this could be necessary. Genius.
The laws of physics always apply.
I'm always entertained by the people who come into a thread with "Who? Never heard of him and don't care."
Really? So wtf are you doing responding to the thread? It's some sort of bizarre vanity play to say "I'm so cool I don't know celebrities." This is the new, more sophisticated way of constantly interjecting into conversations "I don't even own a TV!" or the old "I don't even own a cellphone!" Yeah, we get it, you're too enlightened. Now STFU and GTFO.
By all accounts Paul Walker was a really decent human being. The anecdotes pouring in about his generosity are pretty impressive.
Reporting this morning indicates Walker died within seconds of the crash, so he would not have suffered from the flames.
I saw the surveillance video that captured the crash on camera, and the ensuing fireball was HUGE. Far larger than I had imagined. Nobody could have survived long enough in that explosion to feel any pain and suffering.
My younger brother briefly owned a Firebird that would go forty in first gear and sixty when you let out the clutch to put it in second. He had to sell it. The cops would decorate it with speeding tickets whenever they saw it parked and unoccupied.
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