Per some in Australia, it may be too dangerous an activity: “‘The mayor said they would like to issue us a permit but can’t because it raises health and safety issues, in case somebody fell over a child on the footpath or into the street,’ [a cafe owner] said.” [Free-Range Kids]
Posts Tagged ‘roads and streets’
Pedestrian complainant characterizes Google Maps as “advisor”
“The woman who claims faulty walking directions on Google Maps caused her to be hit by a car is trying to salvage her case with the novel argument that Google is liable for negligent publication because it provided her with ‘individual advice.'” [Matthew Heller, OnPoint News; Google brief, PDF, at OnPoint News; earlier here and here]
Man drives car into light pole in Wal-Mart parking lot
Is the parking lot of the Newington, N.H. “normal[ly] configured,” had there been earlier drivers who bumped into the pole, and should either point matter in the lawsuit he’s filed as a result? [Seacoast Online via Siouxsie Law]
U.K.: “Health and safety spells the end for cobblestones”
“Councils have ripped up or paved over acres of traditional cobblestones from streets across Britain, amid fears of compensation claims from people who trip over on them.” [Telegraph]
On trial for vehicular homicide, sues family she killed
Citing text messages she sent her boyfriend shortly before the incident, Montana prosecutors contend that Justine Winter’s crash at 85 mph into an oncoming vehicle was a deliberate suicide attempt. Winter, who faces trial on homicide charges in the deaths of Erin Thompson, the woman she ran into, and Thompson’s 13-year-old son, has now sued Thompson’s estate as well as the construction company that built the interstate overpass where the accident occurred. [Daily Inter Lake, Siouxsie Law]
“HOV lanes are racist” case
Arlington, Virginia taxpayers have managed to pay a law firm $744,000 to pursue it [Sun-Gazette via Ted at PoL]
“It Wasn’t Me, Officer! It Was My GPS”
When drivers say faulty driving instructions caused their accident, should someone else have to pay? [Tom Vanderbilt, Slate] Earlier on the Google Maps pedestrian suit here.
Cyclists sue Seattle over streetcar track injuries
Bicycling and streetcar tracks can make for a hazardous mix because the “flange way gap” alongside the rail can entrap bicycle wheels. Now six cyclists who crashed while crossing the new Westlake Avenue streetcar project are suing the city of Seattle. They are citing the city’s failure to follow a consultant’s recommendation that it close the avenue to bicyclists. [SeattlePI.com]
By reader acclaim: sues Google over map instruction
Lauren Rosenberg of Los Angeles “is suing Google because Google Maps issued directions that told her to walk down a rural highway. She started walking down the highway — which had no sidewalk or pedestrian paths — and was struck by a car.” [Sarah Jacobsson, PC World; Seth Weintraub, Fortune (“If Google told you to jump off a cliff, would you?”); Lowering the Bar; BoingBoing, Search Engine Land]
Sidewalk altercation leads to close encounter with plate glass window
And suits against multiple defendants follow, including an allegation that the owners of the salon in question had reason to know that the sidewalk in front of their window was “frequently traveled by intoxicated pedestrians.” [WBBM Chicago]