An M.D. explained what happened.
"Some of the news agencies (such as CNN) have assumed that the "pugilistic stance" description of both occupant's arm positions must mean that they were "bracing for an impact."
In actuality, pugilistic posturing of the arms is a very common finding in human remains that have been subjected to intense heat during a fire.
Also, the coroner's impression in his final report on the cause of death of Paul Walker is no different than in the initial report...the cause of death was due to "the combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries."
Make no mistake people, Paul Walker (sadly and tragically) was burning before he died.
If people will read the entire coroner's report, it demonstrates...that although Paul Walker had some bone fractures...he did not have any injury to his brain and no skull fractures or signs of any head trauma. He didn't even have any lacerations to his scalp.
He did not have any blunt force chest trauma.
Although he had some rib fractures, they were all lateral, none of which even penetrated the pleural cavities (the lining and space which surrounds the lungs) as evidenced by the coroner's report stating the pleural cavities contained no fluid.
He had no damage or tears to any area of his heart, he had no pericardial effusion, he had no injury or tears to either his thoracic or abdominal aorta.
The solid organs within the abdominal cavity were normal and unremarkable, and there was no fluid collection in the abdominal cavity.
So essentially, the only traumatic injuries he received were some bone fractures...none of which would have been fatal, in and of themselves.
The generic blanket statement by the coroner in his impression of the cause of death ("combined effects of traumatic and thermal injury") is a more humane way of describing this type of death (mainly for the sake of family members), yet without putting anything blatantly inaccurate in the report. It serves no purpose to tell family members that their loved one's demise was the result of being burned to death.
However, within the body of the report it is quite clear that his death resulted from severe thermal trauma (ie: he burned to death in the very intense fire that ensued shortly after the crash), because none of his blunt force trauma injuries were life threatening, in and of themselves, as I stated before.
The diffuse hemorrhaging within both lungs (in the absence of any lung lacerations) as described in the coroner's report is another sign used by a coroner when examining victims of a fire to differentiate between death due to thermal trauma (burning to death) and death due to smoke inhalation.
The coroner's report also states that a carbon monoxide test was done of Walker's blood and it showed a "carboxyhemoglobin saturation" of 14%.
That means, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was breathing for a while as the flames engulfed him. However, that 14% saturation would not be enough to cause death, it was the severe thermal trauma from the intense fire that killed him.
Although it would be very painful and terrifying, being within such an intense fire would actually bring about death relatively quickly.
The bone fractures would have made it extremely difficult for him to attempt to extricate himself from the wreckage.
He also had a fracture of the T6 vertebra. That is in the upper back at about the level of his chest. The report states he also had a contusion of his spinal cord in that area.
That spinal cord contusion would most likely have resulted in at least some neurological deficit. In other words, he may have had some numbness in his legs along with some difficulty moving his legs.
Combine that with the fractures in his pelvis and the fractures in his arms, and it's pretty obvious that it would have been impossible for him to extricate himself from the wreckage...especially in the short amount of time between the wreck and the flames engulfing the car.
An awful and terrible way to go."
Wow. Very interesting. I was watching Joy Ride last night and in the movie he hits a tree with his car.
