Pedestrian Follows Google Directions, Has Accident, And Sues

 

Looks innocuous enough doesn’t it? Just another set of directions provided by Google Maps.

Not as far as Lauren Rosenberg is concerned.

SearchEngineLand reported Friday that Rosenberg is suing Google after she suffered an accident because she following the walking directions Google provided:  

Rosenberg used Google Maps on January 19, 2009, via her Blackberry, to get directions between 96 Daly Street, Park City, Utah and 1710 Prospector Avenue, Park City, Utah. Google provided these, telling her as part of the route to walk for about 1/2 mile along the calm-sounding “Deer Valley Drive.”

That’s an alternative name for that section of Utah State Route 224, a highway that lacks sidewalks, the case says. Rosenberg wasn’t warned about this, putting Google directly at fault in the accident, the case claims:

Defendant Google, through its “Google Maps” service provided Plaintiff Lauren Rosenberg with walking directions that led her out onto Deer valley Drive, a.k.a. State Route 224, a rural highway wit no sidewalks, and a roadway that exhibits motor vehicles traveling at high speeds, that is not reasonably safe for pedestrians.

The Defendant Google expects uses of the walking map site to rely on the accuracy of the walking directions given….

As a direct and proximate cause of Defendant Google’s careless, reckless, and negligent providing of unsafe directions, Plaintiff Laren Rosenberg was led onto a dangerous highway, and was thereby stricken by a motor vehicle…

So, should Google be liable? Or did Rosenberg leave her common sense at the door when she decided to walk along a highway that has no sidewalk?

Check out the full story here.

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