Charlie W. McCall (C.W.), an experienced truck driver, had a bad crash in Oct. 2021. It happened over the brow of a hill on Missouri Highway 54, where he met a stationary truck at a right angle to the highway, blocking the shoulder and two lanes of the highway going north. C.W. was on his way to Kingdom City to deliver cargo, but he never made it. When his companion hitch hiker managed to get out of the truck and go over to the other truck blocking the whole road, he found no one in the driver’s seat. How could this happen? The blocking truck was being driven by a not so intelligent algorithm. This truck, going south, had made a left turn crossing the grassy median heading towards the road that led to the farm which was its destination. A dangerous move at best, but it had stopped completely to avoid a farmer on his ATV coming out to direct his delivery.
C.W. is the Plaintiff. After this accident, he had so many bodily injuries that he no longer was able to practice his profession as a truck driver.
Is there any defense for such an obvious fault in the design of the AI system? The Prosecution can easily prove that the vehicle’s sensors did not adequately register the obstacles present or the imminent dangers of a serious accident.
Or maybe, perhaps, the experienced driver, McCall, was so sleepy that he did not accurately calculate the glow that he observed, coming from the AI truck’s headlights toward the right side of the highway that he was on. He did not turn off his cruise control which was set on 74 mph. He did not remember the wise saying he had memorized, “If the hill’s aglow, don’t go.”
This is our Mock Trial team’s case for this year: Charlie McCall, plaintiff, v. Flynet AI Systems Trucking Corporation, d/b/a Fast Corp, Defendant. Priory has two very talented teams this year, Varsity and J.V. Each team has seven or eight guys.
Counting on the illustrious history of Priory Mock Trial before Covid, our guys believe that they can go back to the state competition. With standout performances by varsity attorney Cam Wong, and Chuck Taylor as C.W. this team has the chance to make a run at state! But beware the excellent competition in our Saint Louis area, and especially the all-girls teams. Our Varsity team is going head to head against a ruthless cutthroat Visitation team next Tuesday, and this will be the biggest challenge we have faced all year. Our new motto should be when up against girls, “If we aren’t nice, we’re sliced.”
