Paul Walker’s mum Cheryl has recalled the last conversation she had with her son on the day he died. In an upcoming documentary called I Am Paul Walker, Cheryl reveals that the charity event he attended that day – from which he was leaving when the crash happened – had slipped his mind and he wouldn’t have attended had he not received a text. Speaking of their final morning together, Cheryl spoke of how he was sat in her kitchen along with his daughter Meadow, 15, chatting happily and making Christmas plans. ‘We were having this good conversation, and he’d forgotten about an event he had,’ she revealed, according to People. ‘He got a text and said, “Oh my gosh, I’m supposed to be somewhere!”‘
The event was in aid of victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Phillippines and was held at a race shop. Paul later left the event with his friend Roger Rodas, who took him for a ride in his Porsche Carrera GT. As they drove along a street in Santa Clarita, Rodas lost control of the vehicle and it crashed into a lamppost and two trees, exploding in a fireball. MORE: SHOWBIZ
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 lightpost. 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 “totalled 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 died of the effects of trauma and burns. Both families went on to contest Porsche’s claims it was driver error, however, Porsche were later found not at fault. ‘I think so many people think, “Oh, he was just a movie star who was killed in a car accident.’ But there was so much more to him,’ Paul’s mum continued. ‘That was just a piece of who he was. He was an amazing man.’
The son of a model and a sewer contractor, he grew up in Los Angeles, in a working class Mormon household. Child modelling assignments helped keep the family afloat financially (he was the eldest of five) and launched a career that started on TV then moved to the big screen with 1998 comedy Meet the Deedles, then supporting roles in Pleasantville, Varsity Blues and She’s All That.
It was his turn in 2000 thriller The Skulls which brought him to the attention of the Fast and Furious producer. Notable other roles included the lead in genial huskies drama Eight Below, and a part in Clint Eastwood’s Iwo Jima epic The Flags of our Fathers. The day before his death, he posted an update to Twitter expressing his excitement about the upcoming seventh instalment: “The boys are back. Will you be ready? – #TeamPW #FastFridays”