Death Of 5-Year-Old Girl Blamed On Apple Facetime

Apple can be blamed for a lot of things, but now the tech company has to add the death of a little girl only five years of age to its list of worries. The parents of the child are blaming the company’s Facetime feature on its smart devices for the traffic accident that killed their daughter back in 2014, which is why they are suing Apple. According to the lawsuit, the app was not designed safely enough.

The tragic death of Moriah Modisette was caused after Garrett Wilhelm, 22, rammed their car at high speeds. When police officers arrived at the scene, Wilhelm’s smart device was still active and clearly showed that he was using Facetime prior to the accident, the Daily Mail reports.

Wilhelm is facing manslaughter for the incident and with the compelling evidence against him, it’s likely that he will be charged. On that note, it would seem that Moriah’s parents, James and Bethany Modisette are not content with simply seeing Wilhelm behind bars. They also want Apple to take responsibility for what they view was insufficient steps taken by the company in terms of safety protocols of their devices.

The lawsuit filed against Apple doesn’t come with a set amount, at least, not one disclosed to the public. It was filed in the state of California the week before and points out that Apple had the ability to lock users from activating the app while they are driving.

According to the file, Apple could have used data gathered via GPS to determine whether or not the user of their devices are traveling at high speeds. If so, it could have installed the feature that would have stopped the use of Facetime while the vehicle was still moving.

“Despite both the technology since 2008 and a patent on that technology so it could exploit its patent without competition for 20 years, defendant Apple has consistently and continuously failed to implement a safer, alternative design that would lock-out and prevent the use of FaceTime while driving,” the court document reads.