Court Rejects Claim That Driver's 'Neurobiological Response' to iPhone Text Caused Fatal Wreck
A federal appellate court has 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 original version of this story was published on Texas Lawyer
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 Tyler, Texas federal 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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