Texas Lawsuit Targets Apple For Cell Phone Distraction

Accidents, injury, and death as the result of distracted driving have spiked with the advent of mobile communications and the increasing number of apps that exploit it. The phenomenon has spawned concern, remorse, PR campaigns, and also lawsuits, most recently a product liability suit in Texas against Apple, filed by the survivors of a vehicle hit by a Dodge Ram truck whose driver was checking her iPhone. The case is unlikely to succeed, says the New York Times, but it has “brought to light a piece of evidence that legal and safety experts say puts Apple in a quandary — one it shares with other wireless companies. In Apple’s case, the evidence shows, the company has a patent for technology designed to prevent texting while driving, but it has not deployed it.” Another distracted driving lawsuit targeting Apple – along with Google, Microsoft and Samsung – was filed last year in California state court, on a public nuisance theory.