What should be a very interesting case to follow, involves a woman who is suing Google for what she claims was bad directions she was given by Google maps. What is also of interest is that the woman was using what she claims were walking direction from Google maps to her Blackberry. She claims that part of the directions included a busy highway that she took and was struck by a car. Her claim is that the road she was on lacked a sidewalk but the Google map didn’t warn her of this.

In a recent article it states that:

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…

But there is more. Google maps for walking directions has this warning:

Walking directions are in beta. Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.

What is not clear is if this warning was included in the Blueberry version of Google maps that the woman used.

This is a picture of the roadway on which the victim was hit by the car:

This made me wonder if this woman was not blind, wouldn’t she have noticed that there were no sidewalks? Wouldn’t she also notice how much traffic was on the road way, before starting her walk on same?

I know these are reasonable questions that a prudent person would ask. What do you think?

Comments welcome.

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