These days the iPod gets blamed for everything...

Feb 17, 2006 13:54 GMT  ·  By

After a week, with no new lawsuits against Apple for the iPod being responsible for all manner of things that are totally under the individual's control and over which Apple has no sway, things seem to have taken an unexpected turn for the worse.

"iPod blamed for Aussie's death," The Age reports. It seems that Patricia McMillan, a 32-year-old Australian law student, that had lived in the UK for 10 years, was listening to her iPod when she was knocked off her bike and thrown under a truck. The incident took place near her London home.

The Evening Standard quoted McMillan's best friend, Jacques Poullard, who stated that she may have very well still been alive had she not been listening to her iPod. "She was obsessed by that thing. I never said anything to her about wearing the iPod but now I think if she hadn't had it on she might have heard (the truck). I hope people will think twice about cycling while wearing headphones."

Once again, the iPod is in the eye of the media and the wording of the press makes it sound like the iPod is somehow directly responsible for the accident. The only responsibility here is that of the individual. The device is no more to blame than the people who made the music she was listening to. Why not mention them? After all, the iPod is nothing without content.