Apple Inc. did not owe “a duty of care” to the family of a young girl killed in a distracted driving crash, an appeals court has ruled.
Apple’s design of the iPhone used by the driver was not a “proximate cause” of the Texas highway crash and resulting death of 5-year-old Moriah Modisette, the court said in upholding an earlier ruling.
The child’s mother and family sued Apple for not warning of dangers from using the FaceTime video and audio feature while driving. The company also did not offer a feature to lock out the application at highway speeds, the 2017 lawsuit said.
Apple had patented a disable feature but it was not included with the iPhone 6, the family’s suit said. Apple later made standard a do not disturb driving feature.
The alleged distracted driver, Garrett Wilhelm, faces trial next summer. Police say he slammed into the family’s stopped vehicle at 65 mph while chatting on FaceTime.
The ruling in the product safety case against Apple came Dec. 14, from the 6th Appellate District of California.
The Modisettes charged that Apple knew or should have known of the dangers of using its personal communications technologies while driving. Their suit said that the California tech giant received its lockout patent in April 2014, and released the iPhone 6 without the protections the following September. The family said the failure to use the safety feature was foreseeable and unreasonable.
The appeals court called the link between the Modisettes’ injuries and the design of the smartphone “tenuous.”
Apple unveiled its Do Not Disturb While Driving feature for the the iOS 11 operating system in June 2017. It is up to users to activate and employ the do not disturb function, however. Even with that, the safety feature can be overridden with ease.
> Read the ruling in the Apple product safety case.
