Paul Walker, the star of the Fast and Furious film franchise, died after the car he was in crashed at a speed of more than 100mph and burst into flames, according to the coroner's report released on Friday.
Walker, 40, was found dead along with his friend and financial adviser Roger Rodas on 30 November in a burnt-out Porsche Carrera GT in Los Angeles.
The coroner's report said Walker died of the combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries while Rodas, the driver, died of multiple traumatic injuries. No drugs or alcohol were detected in either men.
Kristy McCracken, the investigator for the Los Angeles coroner, described how the car was driving at unsafe speed in an easterly direction. "For an unknown reason the driver lost control of the vehicle and the vehicle partially spun around and began to travel in a south-easterly direction.
"The vehicle then struck a sidewalk and the driver's side struck a tree and then a light post. The force of these collisions caused the vehicle to spin 180 degrees and it continued to travel in an easterly direction," the report states.
"The passenger side of the vehicle then struck a tree and it then burst into flames."
The coroner said the Porsche was found "totaled with major traffic collision damage all around and it appeared that the vehicle was almost split in half." The report found no evidence of foul play.
Walker was still filming scenes for Fast and Furious 7 when the accident happened. The film is expected to be released later this year.
Walker and Rodas were the owners of a motor racing team and Rodas was also a professional driver.Paul William Walker IV[2] (September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013) was an American actor. Walker began his career guest-starring in several television shows such as The Young and the Restless and Touched by an Angel. Walker gained prominence with breakout roles in coming-of-age and teen films such as She's All That and Varsity Blues. In 2001, Walker gained international fame for playing Brian O'Conner, one of the lead protagonists in the street racing action film The Fast and the Furious, and would reprise the role in five of its six sequels. He was also in films such as Eight Below, Timeline, Into the Blue, Joy Ride and Running Scared.
Outside of acting, Walker was the face of The Coty Prestige fragrance brand Davidoff Cool Water for Men, and starred in the National Geographic Channel series, Expedition Great White. He also founded the charity Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW), an organization providing relief efforts for areas affected by natural disasters.
Walker was born in Glendale, California, and was the son of Cheryl (née Crabtree), a fashion model, and Paul William Walker III, a sewer contractor and a fighter who was a two-time Golden Gloves champion.[3][4][5] Paul's paternal grandfather had a boxing career as "'Irish' Billie Walker". Paul's ancestry was mostly English, with some German, Swiss,[6] and Irish.[7][8][9] One of his grandfathers raced factory cars for Ford in the 1960s.[3] The oldest of five siblings, Walker was raised primarily in the Sunland community of Los Angeles and attended high school in the San Fernando Valley, graduating from Sun Valley's Village Christian School in 1991.[10][11] He was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[4] After high school, Walker attended several community colleges in Southern California, majoring in marine biology.[12]
Career
Walker began his small screen career as a toddler, when he starred in a television commercial for Pampers. He began modeling at the age of two and began working on television shows in 1985, with roles in shows such as Highway to Heaven, Who's the Boss?, The Young and the Restless, and Touched by an Angel. That same year, he starred in a commercial for Showbiz Pizza.[13] Walker's film career began in 1986, with the horror/comedy film Monster in the Closet. In 1987 he appeared in The Retailiator (aka Programmed to Kill), a low budget cyborg action film, with Robert Ginty. He and his sister Ashlie were contestants on a 1988 episode of the game show I'm Telling!; they finished in second place. In 1993 he played Brandon Collins on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless. He and his co-star Heather Tom, who played Victoria Newman, were nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a soap opera at the Youth in Film Awards. In 1998, Walker made his feature film debut in the comedy Meet the Deedles, which finally gained him fame. This subsequently led tosupporting roles in the movies Pleasantville (1998), Varsity Blues (1999), She's All That (1999), and The Skulls (2000).
