A Utah woman has filed a suit against Google, claiming the web giant is responsible for her recent accident. Lauren Rosenberg used Google Maps to find walking directions on her blackberry device, and then disengaged any cognitive faculties that she may (or may not) posses in order to follow them along a busy highway with no sidewalks.   The case 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…

In case you were wondering if this case had any legitimacy, I found a few pictures that have been popping up across the interwebs…

This is the highway along which Rosenberg chose to walk:

And here are the Google Maps directions, which clearly warn that the walking directions are still in beta stage and may be inaccurate and potentially hazardous:

“But the interwebs told me to!” has never – and will never – be a legitimate excuse for idiocy. At what point did it become acceptable to shut off common sense?  This is Darwinism in action – survival of the fittest.  Unfortunately, Rosenberg survived the accident and will pass on her inferior intellect to the next generation. I can’t help but feel as though some great injustice has thus been committed. (Harsh, perhaps?)

I have a sneaking suspicion that what really happened that fateful day was similar to this news item from last summer: