# Paul Walker has Died. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184 "2013-12-01T03:12:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/81 "2013-12-01T21:58:09Z")
It took some _real_ work to accomplish by _that_ idiot. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/82 "2013-12-01T22:04:23Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > I guess I get to be the inevitable pedant on this one. > > If Walker had starred in a series of driver safety films called _Careful and Cautious_, then his death in a speeding car crash would be ironic. But dying in a way that is quite similar to the plots of his Fast and Furious films is coincidental or if you’re like \*\*PSXer \*\*and don’t like him or those films, poetic justice. > > But do feel bad for the guy, even if I think those films sort of suck. He didn’t deserve that. Considering the ‘death defying stunts’ of the movies done with cars at ludicrous speeds - thats what makes this ‘ironic’ - I do not consider it poetic justice and I am not like psxer at all (and would consider it an insult if pushed). Otherwise, I get your point that ironic may not have been the best choice there - and will drop it. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/83 "2013-12-01T22:41:35Z")
Looking at this picture [http://www.thewrap.com//images/2013/11/paul-walker-crash-police.jpg](http://www.thewrap.com//images/2013/11/paul-walker-crash-police.jpg) it appears the car is broken in half. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/84 "2013-12-01T23:00:00Z")
Everyone I know that worked with him (makeup and production staff) says that he was a genuinely nice person. I enjoyed a lot of the movies he was in, and felt _Joyride_ was underrated as a suspense movie. RIP ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/85 "2013-12-01T23:20:25Z")
Not a huge fan of the F&F series (only saw the first two), but I always kinda liked the guy when he turned up in something I was watching. Gotta say, it’s a hell of a coincidence that he went that way. It’s like if William Shatner were to be killed by aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/86 "2013-12-01T23:27:39Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Not a huge fan of the F&F series (only saw the first two), but I always kinda liked the guy when he turned up in something I was watching. > > Gotta say, it’s a hell of a coincidence that he went that way. It’s like if William Shatner were to be killed by aliens. Or maybe his love for fast cars was partially what got him the part in the F&F series. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/87 "2013-12-02T00:44:03Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Aren’t light poles typically designed to break away? It depends. Objects behind curb and gutter are typically considered to be outside the roadway ‘clear recovery area’ for speed limits of less than 40 mph. Otherwise, you’re going to have problems in urban areas. I am not familiar with all light pole designs, but from the photos I’ve seen that pole didn’t have a breakaway base. It may have had a weakened bottom section that would allow the pole to separate from the base, but isn’t obvious from the outside. I not that the speed limit from Google Streetview shows the sign on the pole that was hit to be 35mph, but in press photos its 45mph, so it was raised recently. I will also note I’ve seen breakaway poles not break. You need to be going at a good clip (20mph+), but also with improved car crumple zones an impact dynamics, cars have gotten ‘soft’ enough that poles may not break if hit above this speed. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/88 "2013-12-02T00:47:00Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Not much fire damage at all on that tree, except for breaking it off near the ground. It was mostly impact damage. Not much fire at all. I’m highly skeptical that there was much fire. I still vote for impact damage, and a Darwin. [Fire looks pretty good in this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R976MdhNhg). ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/89 "2013-12-02T01:53:43Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > [Fire looks pretty good in this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R976MdhNhg). The news story I saw earlier said that they expect to identify the bodies via dental records due to the extreme fire that happened when the car hit the tree. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/90 "2013-12-02T02:21:46Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Aren’t light poles typically designed to break away? Not according to the one in the middle of my front yard, put in 2 or 3 years ago when they widened the road. It’s just a tree-trunk, about a foot to a foot-and-a-half in diameter, treated so it won’t rot, and stuck in a hole about 6 or 8 feet deep. So in other words, just about exactly like hitting a tree, of a somewhat larger diameter than the one that car is wrapped around. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/91 "2013-12-02T02:23:22Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > [Fire looks pretty good in this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R976MdhNhg). Not very impressive compared to some I’ve seen, and it goes away from the tree. ETA: and I didn’t see any significant light pole remains upstream from the crash in the video. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/92 "2013-12-02T02:57:12Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > …Other than that, [this impact took some _ **hella-speed** _](http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1533818.1385876653!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/walker-crash.jpg) to accomplish. I’d classify that as ‘Darwin Award’, rather than ‘accident’. It took _real_ work to accomplish _that_ one. Jesus H Christ! Words fail. What kind of speed was that moron driving at and why wouldn’t Paul tell him to slow-down? Obviously, it’s ultimately the driver’s fault – but I’d **never** be on the passenger seat of someone going that fast unless I was being kidnapped. He may have been used to going pedal-to-the-metal but surely he (and I am talking about _Paul_ here) had to know that you simply don’t do that on public city streets. I only saw the first of the series and was amused by it…did watch a couple of other Walker movies (Takers & Running Scared) and enjoyed the way he came off on screen. Seems he was quite the likable guy off of it too. What a shame. But again, he should have known better… RIP ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/93 "2013-12-02T03:49:23Z")
> [@bump](#): > > The news story I saw earlier said that they expect to identify the bodies via dental records due to the extreme fire that happened when the car hit the tree. That looks like an oil fire to me. I think this car had a dry sump system that would hold at least 2 gallons of hot oil. Would make for a hell of a smoky hot fire. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/94 "2013-12-02T04:08:55Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > That looks like an oil fire to me. I think this car had a dry sump system that would hold at least 2 gallons of hot oil. Would make for a hell of a smoky hot fire. Meh. If you give some fuel to a carbon fiber/epoxy composite, you might get a fire like that. If you feed it with some flammable oil, or something. Like you said. It really comes down to wrapping it around a tree. _Really_ wrapping it around. It really didn’t burn much, compared to the damage that was achieved by the ‘wrap-around’. The fire was incidental damage, and didn’t contribute much. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/95 "2013-12-02T14:44:55Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Not very impressive compared to some I’ve seen, and it goes away from the tree. ETA: and I didn’t see any significant light pole remains upstream from the crash in the video. [TMZ had a photo up](http://ll-media.tmz.com/2013/11/30/1130-paul-walker-accident-scene-twitter-3.jpg) that showed the downed pole. The base of the pole is at the extreme right in the photo. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/96 "2013-12-02T15:08:14Z")
Sad, but these two were going WAY too fast. I read that there was a big uptick in car crashes 9after the “Fast and Furious” movies came out). The kids thought that high speed racing was fun and safe…it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/97 "2013-12-02T15:09:16Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > Jesus H Christ! Words fail. What kind of speed was that moron driving at and why wouldn’t Paul tell him to slow-down? Obviously, it’s ultimately the driver’s fault – but I’d **never** be on the passenger seat of someone going that fast unless I was being kidnapped. Problem is if you’re a passenger in a car with the driver going too fast for your comfort and you ask him _(or her)_ to slow down and he doesn’t what are your options? On the crash pics my dad is a forestor and he believes there is no way a tree of thickness could have withstood that apparent impact without breaking, I wonder what the exact sequence of events were and what shape the car was in before it hit the tree. Perhaps most of the pictures show further damage down by rescue services after the initial impact _(trying to cut what was left of the occupants out for example)_. And Simster I thought that someone making a living by pretending to drive really fast and dangerously being killed in a real crash was pretty ironic as well, but this isn’t really the thread to debate definitions. btw what time of day or night did the crash happen at? Don’t think I’ve seen that mentioned in the coverage. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/98 "2013-12-02T15:36:04Z")
According to [The Los Angeles Times](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-walker-death-20131202,0,2684660.story#axzz2mKItKn34), the lamp post was concrete. I assumed it was aluminum, but if it was concrete, that might explain some of the damage. The same article has this sad sentence, “Officials at the scene held back a childhood friend of Walker’s from trying to take the actor’s body from the burning car, and firefighters had to pull Rodas’ young son away from the wreckage, [friend of the actor Jim] Torp said.” ---
**Author:** ![Ionizer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Ionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ionizer)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/99 "2013-12-02T16:00:47Z")
Just saw an update on the wreck [(here)](http://www.newser.com/story/178485/paul-walkers-mourning-daughter-is-a-fake.html) , and it seems that there is possibly some evidence of mechanical (steering??) failure from maybe fluid(s) leaking just before the skid marks. Just thought I’d throw that out. My gut feeling is waaay-too-fast speed was involved anyways, but that will remain to be seen definitively. I don’t think I have seen Mr Walker’s appearance(s) on [Shark Men](http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/shark-men/episodes.aspx?series=1) mentioned yet, but I did see it myself. Great show/episode he was in, fwiw. In no way did he seem to be there for being a ‘celebrity-on-board’ - the guy did whatever he was tasked to do, with no complaints or whatever from him. He never seemed to want attention to himself, but wanted to be a team-member that was not treated with kid-gloves, so to speak. A guy, IMHO, who wanted to be there for the science/info-gathering mission of and not the ‘look-at-me’ aspect of so many 'guest appearances so common nowadays on other programmings. RIP Mr Walker… ETA [a better link](http://www.tmz.com/2013/12/02/paul-walker-roger-rodas-deadly-accident-porsche-malfunction-fluid-leak/) to details of possible mechanical problem (TMZ, per se) ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184/100 "2013-12-02T16:09:14Z")
I’m definitely not a fan of the Fast and Furious movies. Let’s hope Vin Diesel uses this as an excuse to kill that franchise. If he wants to make crappy movies he can always focus all his energy on the Chronicles of Riddick. However, I’d add another vote for Joy Ride. It’s a solid suspense movie that I didn’t expect much of but delivered a good ride. Definitely worth checking out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-walker-has-died/675184.md?page=6)