We’ve seen plenty of reports about people suing Apple, but this may be the most surprising one yet. A couple from Texas is suing the tech giant on claims that FaceTime distracted a driver who crashed into their family car, killing the couple’s 5-year-old daughter.
A report from ABC News states that the fatal accident occurred on Christmas eve in 2014 near Dallas where the Modisette family was on the road in their Toyota Camry. While they were on the highway, the family had to slow or stop their car due to police activity ahead which had caused a traffic jam.
Another driver, Garrett Wilhelm, was travelling in his Toyota 4Runner in the same direction behind the Modisette’s car, had his attention allegedly diverted from the road by his smartphone’s FaceTime application.
Because of that, the Garrett crashed into the Modisette family from behind at full highway speed (about 100km/h). The accident took the life of the Modisette’s 5-year-old daughter Moriah, while severely injuring father James and injuring mother Bethany and Moriah’s sister Isabella.
ABC News reports that the couple, James and Bethany Modisette, is suing Apple for not implementing a “safer, alternative design” for FaceTime which could have prevented the use of the application while someone was driving at highway speeds. The suit also claims that Apple failed “to warn users that the product was likely to be dangerous when used or misused” or to instruct safe use.
The Modisettes also claim that, at the time of the collision, Garrett’s iPhone had the necessary hardware to be configured with the software to automatically lock-out the ability to use FaceTime.
“However, Apple failed to configure the iPhone to automatically ‘lock-out’ the ability to utilise ‘FaceTime’ while driving at highway speeds, despite having the technical capability to do so,” the suit continued.
What do you guys think of this? Should Apple be blamed, or was it really the driver who is at fault here? Let me know in the comments below.
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