Claim That Driver's 'Neurobiological Response' to iPhone Text Caused Fatal Wreck Rejected at 5th Circuit
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has a rejected a products liability claim against Apple alleging that a woman's neurobiological response to looking at a text message on her iPhone 5 while behind the wheel was the cause of a car crash that killed two people and paralyzed a child.
December 19, 2018 at 03:53 PM
4 minute read
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has a rejected a products liability claim against Apple alleging that a woman's neurobiological response to looking at a text message on her iPhone 5 while behind the wheel was the cause of a car crash that killed two people and paralyzed a child.
The Fifth Circuit's decision in Meador v. Apple focuses on a 2013 wreck involving Ashley Kubiak, who was driving her pickup truck when she looked down to read a text message on her phone. She then turned her attention back to the road, but at that point it was too late, and the collision killed two adults and rendered a child paraplegic. Kubiak was later convicted of two counts of criminally negligent homicide.
Family members later sued Apple in a Tyler U.S. District Court for negligence and product liability. The plaintiffs' complaint alleged that Apple, because of its concern over texting-while-driving accidents, had secured a patent covering a lockout mechanism for hand-held devices, but did not implement any version of the mechanism on the iPhone 5.
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