High-flying SEC director and her wealthy lawyer husband sue Google ‘after its maps directed them to notorious South African road where they suffered horrific bloody attack by armed robbers’

A wealthy Los Angeles couple is suing Google after claiming the Maps app led them along a notoriously dangerous road in South Africa, where they were attacked.

Jason and Kate Zoladz were using the app to navigate to Cape Town International Airport while on holiday in October last year when a rock shattered the car window and four men approached their rental car and robbed them at gunpoint.

The app sent them along the R310 Baden Powell Drive before turning left onto the M22 New Eisleben Road, where they were viciously attacked at the junction with Sheffield Road in Browns Farm while stopped at a red light.

The attack, which left Jason with a broken jaw, took place a few blocks away from the infamous stretch of road known as Hell’s Run on the N2 highway.

Kate, a senior director in the California office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Jason, a lawyer, are now suing Google for failing to issue safety warnings on the route despite warnings from U.S. and South African officials, they claim.

A Google Earth image, taken at an unrelated time, of the intersection where the Zoladz’s were attacked

“We were driving; I just followed Google Maps directions to the airport’ Kate, who was also injured in the arm by the rock, told the Daily Maverick.

“We were about 4 or 4 miles from the airport when we stopped at a red light intersection and a man smashed the driver’s side window with a rock. The rock smashed Jason’s jaw to the bone,” she explained.

The robbers then approached the vehicle with guns, opened the passenger door and pulled her from the car.

‘They didn’t say anything, but they pointed their guns at me, grabbed my bag from my body and started petting me and going through my pockets. They also took the keys that were in the ignition,” she recalls.

He added: ‘The whole time I didn’t want to look them in the face, so I just looked at the ground and repeated, ‘Take it all, take it all.’

The robbers started firing shots into the air, but eventually returned the keys to the couple.

“When the shots stopped, I looked over to where Jason was. He was standing next to the car and blood was pouring down the side of his neck,” Kate said.

The couple found a police officer who escorted them to Melomed Tokai Private Hospital, where he underwent a three-hour operation to repair his broken jaw.

“Jason now lives with four metal plates in his jaw, persistent pain and numbness, and faces the likelihood of future surgeries,” the lawsuit said.

The couple’s lawsuit alleges that the Nyanga neighborhood where Google Maps sent them 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 traveling in rental cars” and “attack the cars by throwing rocks or large rocks through the car windows, violently assaulting the occupants and stealing valuables,” the lawsuit alleges.

According to the lawsuit, the victims were left “injured, maimed or dead.”

In addition, “the gangs knew that Google Maps was directing unsuspecting tourists in rental cars along the stretch of road,” the lawsuit alleged.

Three weeks after the Zoladzes were attacked, Google agreed to stop Google Maps from directing users through the area, the lawsuit alleged, but “that was too late for the Zoladzes.”

The couple is seeking unspecified damages.

A Google Maps spokesperson said: ‘We consider many factors to determine the best driving route, including road size, directness, estimated journey time and fuel consumption.

“We take driver safety very seriously and encourage drivers to follow local laws, remain attentive and use common sense.”