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Family Sues Apple Over Wreck Caused by FaceTime

A family grieving the death of their young daughter wants Apple held accountable for encouraging distracted driving with its FaceTime app, in a lawsuit filed Friday in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (CN) – A family grieving the death of their young daughter wants Apple held accountable for encouraging distracted driving with its FaceTime app, in a lawsuit filed Friday in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

James and Bethany Modisette claim the tech giant and smartphone manufacturer had the patent for a safer version of its video-calling app FaceTime, but elected to make the less safe version available with the iPhone 6 – ultimately resulting in the death of their daughter.

The Modisette family said Apple is responsible for their daughter's death because of its "failure to install and implement the safer, alternative design for which it sought a patent in December 2008 (later issued by the United States Patent Office in April 2014) to 'lock out' the ability of drivers to utilize the 'FaceTime' application on the Apple iPhone when driving a motor vehicle, which resulted in the injuries sustained by plaintiffs,” the family says in the complaint.

The dispute arises from events that occurred on Dec. 24, 2014, when the Modisettes and their daughters Isabella and Moriah in their car on Interstate I-35 just north of Dallas.

James Modisette slowed due to traffic caused by an accident and a strong police presence. A vehicle slammed into the family’s car, severely injuring both James and Moriah, who was 5 years old at the time.

Emergency workers extracted James and Moriah from the car, and had to work strenuously due to the severity of the damage. Both were flown to local hospitals and Moriah eventually died from the injuries she suffered in the wreck.

The driver who hit the family told police he was on the FaceTime application at the time of the wreck. Officers found FaceTime was still live when they arrived at the scene, according to the complaint.

The Modisette family said Apple's failure to either program a shutoff into the FaceTime program or give strong warning about using the app while driving is particularly egregious given the app fully engages visual components rather than audio ones as with regular cellphone usage.

"Defendant Apple Inc. has had the technology to prevent these events, and the Modisettes’ injuries, specifically since at least Dec. 12, 2008, when it filed an application with the U.S. Patent Office for a ‘driver handheld computing device lock-out,” the family says in the complaint.

Specifically, the family says Apple possessed the capability to use GPS tracking to gauge the speed of a vehicle in which a user was traveling and shut down FaceTime, but that its failure to include this technology was a significant factor in the crash that injured the Modisette family.

Apple did not return an email seeking comment by press time.

The family seeks economic damages related to the injuries suffered in the crash, along with punitive damages.

They are represented by Jeffrey Simon of Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett in Long Beach, California.

Follow @@MatthewCRenda
Categories / Courts, Technology

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