An American couple from Los Angeles is taking Google to court after they were violently hijacked and robbed in Nyanga last year, after having following directions on Google Maps.
Also read: Google Maps and Waze to stop directing commuters through Nyanga
On the morning of 24 October 2023, Jason and Katharine Zoladz were attempting to navigate to Cape Town International Airport using Google Maps, where they would exchange their rented car for an SUV for a trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, according to the lawsuit filed by the couple in a Californian court on Tuesday.
To reach the airport, Google Maps directed the couple through one of the infamous Nyanga intersections when a brick shattered the car window, four men approached the rental car and robbed them at gunpoint.
‘We were driving, just following the Google Maps directions to the airport. We were about six or seven kilometres from the airport when we stopped at an intersection with a red light and a man smashed the driver’s side window with a brick. The brick smashed Jason’s jaw to the bone,’ Katharine told Daily Maverick.
Gunshots were fired into the air as the couple were pulled out of the vehicle by the assailants, and stripped of their personal possessions, including their phones, credit cards and cash. Jason was left bleeding on the side of the road.
For unknown reasons, one of the armed assailants gave back the keys and the couple began driving along the route they had come. Having lost a significant amount of blood, the couple spotted a police officer who escorted them to Melomed Tokai Private Hospital.
Seven hours after the assault took place, Jason underwent a three-hour surgery, where four titanium plates were inserted into his face, after the couple’s Airbnb host found a spare credit card in Jason’s luggage and brought it to the hospital, reported News24.
The incident was one of a string of violent attacks on tourists in and near Nyanga, which prompted Google, in partnership with the City of Cape Town, to re-route trips to the airport away from dangerous areas.
Also read: American tourist robbed and shot in the face in Nyanga
But these changes came too late for the Zoladz couple.
In the court papers, the couple claims that Google knew the ‘extreme dangers’ of the route and that it was known locally for years as the site of ‘numerous’ violent attacks on tourists by armed criminals.
‘Gangs of robbers would lie in wait for tourists travelling in rental cars’ and would ‘assault the cars by throwing bricks or large stones through the car windows, violently assaulting the occupants and stealing valuables,’ The Mercury News reported the lawsuit as saying.
Google told the Zoladzes to turn left on New Eisleben Road, which intersected with a stretch of highway in the area dubbed the ‘Hell Run’ because of violent attacks on tourists in rental cars. New Eisleben itself was known as a ‘prime site’ for assaults since it’s difficult for victims to escape due to congestion, the lawsuit argued.
The Zoladzes also argued that Google has a responsibility to protect its users, but failed to protect or warn them of the risks of the route.
The couple is seeking unspecified damages.
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Picture: Isaac Mehegan / Unsplash
