Woman sues Google after being hit by a car while using walking directions

A woman named Lauren Rosenberg is suing Google for $100,000 after she walked onto a highway and got hit by a car while following Google Maps directions on her Blackberry. She disregarded, or didn’t see, the warning that says: “Walking directions are in beta. Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.” She also apparently didn’t use common sense.

From Fortune:

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 with 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…

Woman Follows Google Maps “Walking” Directions, Gets Hit, Sues [SearchEngineLand via Fortune]

Update: Danny Sullivan, who discovered and covered the story, has an interesting follow-up about how mainstream news outlets avoided mentioning his scoop in its own rewritten coverage. I’ve replaced our link to Fortune with a link to his original item. — Rob