Sometime on the 19th of January 2009 Lauren Rosenberg decided to take a walk in Park City, Utah in the land of burgers and fries. She took along her trusty Blackberry and decided on utilizing the phone’s Google Map application to look for a route to her destination. Now Lauren Rosenberg got hit by a car after following the instructions to a tee and is now suing Google, the internet company that we all love and cherish.

Now how she got hit by a car is interesting in itself. Lauren Rosenberg plotted a 2 mile walking course via Google Maps and used it to navigate herself throughout the journey. The directions given by Google included walking right beside a busy highway that did not have proper pedestrian crossings or pathways so she got hammered by a car, lived to survive it and has only now decided to sue Google (for US$100,000) and the driver of the car that hit her.

She claims that Google was not safe for pedestrians as it took her to a busy 4 lane road without pavements. Her statement of claim also stated that Lauren Rosenberg “was and is a competent adult” and lays all the blame on Google for providing such a dangerous map and the driver for not taking the usual precautions.

The Google maps page on the main Google Map site does say that there might not be any sidewalks on the route, but Lauren Rosenberg was using her Blackberry to get the directions, which may not have carried the disclaimer, or that it was too tiny to read on her Blackberry. Or the fact that when if she was walking beside a busy road, common sense would have told her that she should get yourself off that busy stretch of road as quickly as possible or she should not have even ventured on that stretch of road in the first place. Maybe she had a problem with her vision as she did not see cars on that stretch of highway, or she was too busy looking at that Blackberry instead of that car barreling down towards her.

Now looking at the scene of the accident above, I somehow fail to see how Lauren Rosenberg could be so oblivious of the fact that she had to cross a 4 lane road to get to where she wanted to go. If I were to cross a 4 lane busy road, I'd try not to. Or head for the nearest pedestrian crossing, or choose a longer route instead. Crossing 4 lanes require good eysight, stamina for sprinting and some luck. She shouldn't have bothered with this route.

The lack of common sense sometimes occurs in someone who admits that she “was and is a competent adult”. And because of this, a company that means well and a motorist who was basically where he was supposed to be get sued in that litigious society that is America.

Oh yeah, I looked up Park City, Utah. It seems they filmed most of that Jim Carrey movie, Dumb and Dumber there. Makes perfect sense now doesn’t it?

Google, Google maps, google walk and 3 more...

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