Apple sued for FaceTime role in road fatality
A US family is suing Apple after a man using the FaceTime app on his iPhone while driving collided with their car, killing their five-year-old daughter.
On Christmas Eve in 2014, James and Bethany Modisette were driving on a highway in Texas with their two daughters when they were forced to stop their Toyota Camry ahead of a jam caused by police activity.
Garrett Wilhelm, driving behind them, failed to stop and his SUV slammed into the car at 105km/h, tearing it apart and riding up over the top.
Bethany and the elder daughter, Isabella, were injured but managed to escape. James and the younger daughter, Moriah, had to be extracted by rescue workers.
Moriah, who was strapped into a booster seat at the time of the crash, was flown to a nearby hospital but died.
Wilhelm – whose iPhone, the family allege, was still running FaceTime when the police recovered it after the crash – was charged with manslaughter in the case, but the Modisettes also hold Apple partly responsible.
At issue is the fact that the company has a patented method of preventing the potentially distracting app from being used in a vehicle, but has failed to implement it.
Damages are sought from Apple for its “wrongful failure to install and implement the safer, alternative design for which it sought a patent in December 2008 . . . to lock out the ability of drivers to utilise the FaceTime application on the Apple iPhone while driving a motor vehicle”, the complaint says.
Apple’s failure to implement that technology was a substantial factor in causing the family’s injuries and Moriah’s death, the lawsuit alleges.
Apple has yet to respond. – NZ Stuff