100mph To Blame For Walker And Rodas Carrera GT Crash

Image via Reach Out WorldWide.

The final autopsy report into the deaths of Paul Walker and Roger Rodas has been submitted by the LA county coroner. It indicates that officials believe the Porsche Carrera GT driven by Rodas was travelling "approximately 100mph+" at the time of the crash.

It is unlikely this is the final judgement on speed, as Porsche engineers were said to be meeting with LA officials in the new year to examine the data recording box fitted to the car. The quoted section of the report is from 'preliminary' information based on what an officer at the scene told the coroner, so we can expect a more specific speed in the near future.

What the information does appear to refute, however, is that the pair were travelling at the 45mph speed limit at the time of the crash.

The report goes on to outline the sequence of events that followed Rodas losing control:

For unknown reasons, the driver lost control of his vehicle, and the vehicle partially spun around... The vehicle then struck a curb, and the driver's side of the vehicle struck a tree and then a light post. The force of these collisions caused the vehicle to spin 180 degrees and continue in an easterly direction. The passenger side of the vehicle then struck another tree and burst into flames.

The description of the scene gives an indication of the forces involved in the impact. On an embankment, officials found a "sheared off cement light pole" next to a "broken tree", with vehicle debris scattered across all four lanes and into the adjacent car parks.

The vehicle - described as "almost split in half" - came to rest against a tree. Walker's body was too burnt for a visual ID and his organs were too damaged to be donated.

The coroner concludes the report by citing the cause of death as the "combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries."

The final autopsy report can be found here, but be warned, it makes for grim reading.