Sprint and Samsung face US legal action over car death

Paul Nesbitt

A US woman is suing Sprint and Samsung after her mother was killed in a road accident by a driver using a phone at the wheel

Samsung and Sprint are facing legal action in one of the first US legal cases where a driver using mobile phone has been cited as the cause of a death in a road traffic accident.

Jennifer Smith, whose mother was killed in 2008, has filed a suit against Samsung, the maker of the handset (a Samsung Upstage phone), and Sprint, the network the driver, Christopher Hill, was using.

Smith's lawsuit contends that both companies should have provided warnings to customers about the dangers of driving and using a mobile phone. If her suit is successful, it could open the floodgates for similar legal actions and possibly lead to legislation banning the use of phones while driving.

'This is a compelling type of legal claim,' said Kenneth Bamberger, a US legal expert. 'It deals with the widespread use of a product we now know is involved in significant risk and deals with the ultimate question of who should contribute in minimising the risk,' he told the New York Times.

Sprint said that it 'rejects the claims of negligence' while Samsung would not comment on the case.

In 2007, the US government estimated that around 11% of drivers were talking on their mobile phones while on the road at any given time.

And way back in 2002 Harvard researchers found that as many as 2,600 driving fatalities per year were caused by people driving and phoning at the same time.