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Carrera GT Crash Settled for $4.5 million
October 24, 2007
Some of you may have read about this fatal crash during a Ferrari Owners Club track day at the California Speedway back in June 2005. Ben Keaton, the owner of the Carrera GT, was driving while Corey Rudl, who was interested in purchasing a Carrera GT, was a passenger. They were traveling at approximately 130 mph on the straightaway when a Ferrari entered the track at a slow speed. Keaton tried to avoid the Ferrari and lost control, hitting a concrete barrier, killing both men.
Corey Rudl’s widow, Tracy Rudl, filed a lawsuit alleging the wrongful death of her husband. She sued the estate of the driver, the track owners, the Ferrari Owners Club, the driver of the Ferrari, and Porsche. The $4.5 million settlement was split as follows: 49% from the estate of the Carrera GT driver, 41% from the track owners and event organizers, 8% from Porsche, and 2% from the driver of the Ferrari.
According to an article in Sports Car Market, an investigation revealed the track suffered from two design defects. First, the pit-out was designed so that it brought drivers onto the track in the middle of the straightaway and the pit-out driver’s view was completely block by the guardrail, so a driver had to rely entirely on a flagger. Second, the concrete wall along the straightaway had been moved out toward the track to accommodate a children’s play area that was set up for a NASCAR race held earlier.
It also revealed that the Ferrari Owners Club president had been warned by one of their vehicle certifiers that he believed something was wrong with the handling of Keaton’s Carrera GT and that it should not be allowed to run. Also, event organizers failed to enforce track safety rules about cars entering the track.
The Ferrari driver and the flagger blamed each other, but the investigation concluded that the driver was at fault for entering the track too slowly.
But the strangest part, to me, is that the lawsuit also claimed that the Carrera GT was defective because Porsche designed it without electronic stability control. The lawyer for the plaintiff had this to say:
Most people, especially those with children on the streets and highways, would fear a vehicle like the Carrera GT, with its tricky handling characteristics, 600-plus horsepower, and unskilled, unqualified drivers. When a ‘race car for the streets’ is sold to anyone with enough money, regardless of his ability to drive it, and it doesn’t even incorporate modern electronic safety devices that correct driver errors, then maybe the manufacturer should accept some responsibility for the foreseeable deaths that will result.
Tracy Rudl also added:
My loving husband was an innocent passenger in an expensive sports car that inexplicably failed to incorporate a modern, life-saving safety feature.
I can see some negligence on the part of the track owners and event organizers because there were obviously some things wrong with the track, but to blame Porsche for building an “unsafe” car because it doesn’t have PSM?
Click here to read the full article from Sports Car Market, it has a lot more details and is a good read.
[source: Sports Car Market]
Posted in Carrera GT
