Seems a California woman went to Utah, wasn't sure where she was going and so called up Google Maps on her smartphone, followed the directions, and got hit by a car.
The woman sustained serious injuries, to be sure. No one is arguing that. She was and is surely in a lot of pain. No one is arguing that. She has every right to file a lawsuit against the driver of the vehicle that hit her. No one is arguing that, either.
But just because Google Maps told her to walk on a rural highway … come on, let's be real here. She (or, more accurately, the one or more attorneys who represent her) has included Google in the lawsuit because Google has deep pockets and because doing so would make a great headline in the news.
Park City, Utah, and its surrounding area — the scene of the incident — include rural areas, to be sure, as do most cities and towns. It just so happens that the woman followed the Google directions that told her to walk on Deer Valley Drive, also known as Utah State Route 224. Now those last three words and that three-digit number should have been her first clue that she was entering an area of potentially higher-risk than if she were walking on the streets of Park City. (That's an assumption, by the way, that cars would be traveling at higher speeds in rural areas than in the central business district of a city.)So she should have been on her guard, to be sure. But she was following directions, so there she was. And she was walking on a rural highway, on which was also traveling the car that hit her. So end of story, right?
Well, no. According to the woman and her attorney(s), it wasn't so much a Car vs. Pedestrian as it was Pedestrian vs. Car and the fine directions-dispensers at Google.
Surely this woman has no standing to sue Google. Surely the judge won't allow that part of the lawsuit to proceed. I'm holding my breath.
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