While driving on interstate 40 in north carolina, carroll jett became distracted by a texting system in the cab of his tractor-trailer truck. he smashed into several vehicles that were slowed or stopped in front of him, injuring barbara and michael durkee and others. the injured motorists filed a suit in a federal district court against geologic solutions, inc., the maker of the texting system, alleging product liability. was the accident caused by jett’s inattention or the texting device? should a manufacturer be required to design a product that is incapable of distracting a driver?

Doogan corporation makes a product with the following standard costs: standard quantity or hours standard price or rate direct materials 2.0 grams $ 7.00 per gram direct labor 1.6 hours $ 12.00 per hour variable overhead 1.6 hours $ 6.00 per hour the company produced 5,000 units in january using 10,340 grams of direct material and 2,320 direct labor-hours. during the month, the company purchased 10,910 grams of the direct material at $7.30 per gram. the actual direct labor rate was $12.85 per hour and the actual variable overhead rate was $5.80 per hour. the company applies variable overhead on the basis of direct labor-hours. the direct materials purchases variance is computed when the materials are purchased. the materials quantity variance for january is: