[SES1066]

It is a tragedy when a child is killed by the actions of others. It is a heartbreak when those actions were done by the child's parents. However it is a parody of justice when the parents sue a company for not preventing them from doing STUPID THINGS that caused the death!

Similar to any number of anti-gun legal actions, it is the tort system and an attitude that the individual can sluff off any portion of blame on someone else and get some gain from it as well. The iPhone did not leap up and blind anyone nor is it possible that the dangers of distracted driving were previously unknown!

To this news story I can only say - Aarrrggghhhhh with disgust!

[NEMDF]

Exactly. If the parent had spilled milkshake on his/her lap, causing the car accident, would they have sued McDonald’s? Probably...

[trebb]

Another old adage applies: You can make anything fool proof - you just can’t make it damn-fool proof....

[Fester Chugabrew]

Idiocy of the operator notwithstanding, I find it ironic that auto manufacturers are so adamant about safety, and public service announcements abound regarding “DON’T TEXT AND DRIVE,” yet new vehicles are loaded to the gills with entertainment apparati.

[varyouga]

If they win, the accident lawyers will now be able to sue for the civil equivalent of “pre-crime”.

If you didn’t do everything under the sun to prevent an accident in advance, you are liable for the accident.

As if we weren’t an over-litigated society already...

[Gay State Conservative]

I had a car that had an “advanced” automatic braking feature as well as “lane assist”.Each time you started it there was a display on the screen telling you not to depend on those features and that you must always have full control of the car.Hard to imagine Apple not having the same thing.But then you never know what a group of Californians will do...the state *did* give ILLary 60% of the vote.

[lgjhn23]

Need to make cellphones/pads etc “hands free audio only” If/when motion is sensed over 5 mph. Texting etc. is worse than DWI and those that do it should be facing huge fines/jail time/loss of license etc.

[kingu]

I’m thinking this will be of interest to your ping list.

[BenLurkin]

They got the story wrong. The decedent was in the car which was struck. Errant driver was on Face-Time

“The little girl, Moriah Modisette, was killed on Christmas Eve 2014 when the Toyota Camry she was traveling in with her parents was struck from behind by a Toyota 4Runner on Interstate 35 north of Dallas. The Camry had slowed or stopped for traffic when it was struck by the SUV going 65 mph, the lawsuit states.”

http://ktla.com/2016/12/29/parents-blame-facetime-for-death-of-5-year-old-daughter-sue-apple/

That said — it is still a BS lawsuit. Shame on their lawyer!

[arthurus]

It is not so much the tort system itself. Back in the early 60s and before, judges showed some discretion and simply threw these things out of court and almost no lawyers would touch "frivolous" lawsuits and meritless lawsuits. In the 60s law schools started graduating students who had taken the eventually required Critical Law courses which essentially teach students that the law can and should be used to break down the whole idea of Law to promote the liberal Utopia. Some of these lawyers became judges and the whole concept of "frivolous" and "meritless" lawsuits almost completely disappeared.
A jury when presented with an absurd suit knows that a judge has approved of the suit going forward so the jurors think that it must have merit and deals with it accordingly.

[American in Israel]

Ya can’t fix stupid.

[aquila48]

Sad for the human race that this moron didn’t win the Darwin award.

[Swordmaker]

Apple being sued under the novel theory they are at fault because, on Christmas Eve 20 14, a driver was illegally using FaceTime while driving at 65 MPH and struck a stopped car and as a result a little girl passenger in the second car was killed. The legal theory is that Apple should have Implemented some unnamed technology that could have prevented FaceTime from being operational while a vehicle is in motion, anticipating idiot drivers using it while driving (ignoring that passengers are also riding in moving vehicles) and should have prevented the girl's death, and is therefor liable! — PING!

Thanks to SES1066 for posting and Kingu for the heads-up!

Apple sued for NOT preventing an IDIOT
FaceTiming while driving!
Ping!

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[BlueStateRightist]

The plaintiff’s bottom dwelling, scum sucking attorney accurately expects Apple to settle for mucho dinero.

[PLMerite]

Driver. Rope. Tree. Fixed.

[Kozak]

“Please stop me from behaving like an idiot”

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

There is a technology—working brain cells.

[Maceman]

I once saw a TV show about cars, and a “safety expert” made the point that all the improved safety features actually caused more accidents because they made drivers more confident and less attentive.

He said that if you really want to reduce car accidents, the most effective way would be to have a sword blade sticking out of the steering wheel pointing right at the driver’s chest.

I think he had a point. (No pun intended.)

[seawolf101]

[Pollster1]

These shockingly frivolous lawsuits irritate me. Apple should sue the reckless driver for being a parasite, and the victims of the crash should sue the driver for being both reckless and a moron.

[zaxtres]

Such technology exists, it is the responsibility of the user to seek it out and install it onto their device. Its called accountability. Its like suing Microsoft for not putting in enough RAM onto your machine so you can run Windows and Word together.