An American couple have launched a lawsuit against Apple after their daughter was killed in a car crash by a driver allegedly using the FaceTime application.
The couple have accused Apple of failing to take proper care to limit the use of their phones by drivers, arguing that the company should have introduced a feature that disables use of Facetime when driving. Apple filed a patent for such a feature in 2008, but it has never been launched.
The fatal accident happened in Texas on Christmas Eve in 2014, with a five-year-old girl being killed. The lawsuit has been launched by the girl’s parents, James and Bethany Modisette, who are now seeking damages for “the defendant’s wrongful failure to install and implement the safer, alternative design for which it sought a patent in December 2008”.
The lawsuit said that, “As a result of that distraction, his Toyota 4Runner, while traveling at full highway speed (65 mph), struck the Modisette family car from behind, causing it to be propelled forward, rotate, and come to a final rest at an angle facing the wrong direction in the right lane of traffic.”
The Toyota 4Runner car then “continued its trajectory by rolling up and over the driver’s side of the Modisette car,” the lawsuit continued.
The car’s driver, Garrett Wilhelm, admitted to using Facetime at the time of the crash and is currently awaiting trial for manslaughter.
Wilhelm’s lawyer, Ricky Perritt, said in a statement: “The Wilhelm family offers their thoughts and prayers for the family of the young lady who lost her life in this tragic accident. We are confident that after all the facts are brought out in Court, it will be shown that the use of a cellular device did not contribute and Mr. Wilhelm did not commit a crime … it was simply an accident.”
Apple have been unavailable for comment.