The news delivers again. A california woman is suing Google for being hit by a car while walking on the Interstate in Utah. According to her, she googled directions to walk someplace on her BlackBerry.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20006379-71.html
Now, when you google from a computer, it gives you the warning that some places maybe missing crosswalks or something like that. But apparently, the blackberry neglected to give her this crucial piece of information and she being an all trusting sort of species, just went on. Even the fact that she was led onto a freeway without any traffic signals and cars and trucks cruising along at 65 miles per hour seemed to have skipped her. She was concentrating on following the directions see?
It must have been like that with that poor old demented soul who ordered hot coffee, and then sued McDonalds for making the coffee hot. Now, all coffee cups are helpfully labelled: “Caution, contents may be hot.”
There can, on the other hand be more generic and dire warnings to help people
Don’t procrastinate
Do today what you can do tomorrow, and do now what you can do today. But go easy with the coffee, it’s okay to procrastinate that, because you want it to cool down before drinking.
Read this thing completely before making decisions, and then proceed to a 35 page declaration of washing off responsibility.
Look before you leap. Caution: leaping is dangerous to health, and may result in injuries. Also, leaping between objects should be done with care. I mean building to building – better left to Pixar animation, cushion to cushion few millimeters apart, can be done after reading 38 page clause declaring you are responsible for the actions of your own leaping.
Or one can just be reminded subtly to use one’s common sense.
Nourish-n-Cherish 
It was an accident waiting to happen…I’ve been advocating disclaimers to everything for ages now and even though a Google bot visited my site and indexed a related post, Google did not pay heed to my warnings and is now facing the music (warning: facing loud musing directly may affect your hearing and in extreme cases, can even lead to permanent hearing damage). Tut tut.
P.S. – what’s the going rate for common sense in the US/kilo? I suppose it must be quite expensive considering it is quite rare there…
Actually, it is more to do with the fact that there are too many qualified lawyers in my opinion.
Anand, what do you mean by “it is quite rare there..”. Where do you think common sense is in abundance???
Ignoring her law suit issue which is as American as it can get, I can see her not realizing it is a freeway. It is a rural state highway and these things aren’t marked well nor is there a wall around.
I am sure you would have seen expressways in New Jersey, they appear like normal roads at high speeds.
Imagine Montague Expressway without a sidewalk. You think it is a normal road if you enter it mid way.
I can see how she was got fooled, particularly if she was a Californian used to distinctly marked Freeways.
Suing – of course is a different issue.
Yes Anand – I suppose you have a point about freeways in other states, but I still find suing for this a little too much
Well, that is the American way.
I have legal insurance from pre paid legal. You wouldn’t believe how many things in this country don’t get resolved until there is a lawyer’s notice behind it. I have used this option a few times.
It isn’t a lawsuit, but to get whatever you want through a lawyer’s letter head gets it done faster or in some cases, is the only way to get things done.
In this case, it is pretty clear she is trying to make money out of Google. If there is any victim in this, it is the poor driver.
She has sued the driver too – these folks don’t spare anyone. In this case, I think she should have sued herself for negligence, but…
Thats what I meant, the driver is the poor soul. Now he has to hire a lawyer (and go broke) defending himself.
She forgot to sue Blackberry for allowing her to run Google Maps on her phone and AT&T / Verizon / T-Mobile for carrying Blackberry, she probably got a bad lawyer :).
@Saumya and Anand: Very valid points, May help Google defend themselves 🙂
I was reading this and was pretty stunned too.
What is the woman’s name? Sue?
Sue-ing is a US concept I suppose. By default all companies should think people are dumb. Ennamo US phil.
And LOL, at the woman’s name! :–D
I know the name Sue is really funny!