Lawsuit-wise, you just can't get away with anything anymore! Recently, a 37 year old woman filed a lawsuit against Starbucks in the multimillions because she was reading her coffee label and caused a car accident. Hmm... The only different thing about this story is the fact that this woman was dyslexic, so she claimed to have difficulty reading the warning on the side of the cup.
This incident occurred in Bismarck, North Dakota, and the woman was attempting read the label on the side of her Starbucks drink while she was driving. She crashed into another driver, and she is facing charges from the incident, which is why she is trying to blame it on Starbucks. Apparently, she was on her way to work, and she purchased a large cup of coffee from Starbucks. She was trying to read the small warning text on the cup while she was driving, and she then ended up having an accident because she suffers from dyslexia. She said that the letters confused her because they were such small text, so it was Starbucks' fault because they were being negligent to people who may have had this learning disability.
All I'm thinking is that it's better not to try to read anything when you're driving, regardless of your disability. Starbucks had no comment for this, which is probably smart on their part because it is almost not even worth discussing. It is speculated that the reason that this woman is bringing the lawsuit to people's attention before being charged is to somehow sway the case in her favor. However, it is one of the first times that dyslexia has been used as a defense in an accident, so who knows how it will turn out in a courtroom hearing?
The victim of the accident was also planning on waiting on the results of the lawsuit before he pressed any further charges. The lawyer for this woman also feels that Starbucks does owe the victim in the accident as well simply because they printed such a small label on their coffee cup. I'm not sure what she hopes Starbucks will do about this matter, but the only solution seems to be for them to print an enormous and easy to read label on their cup that says not to read the label when driving. This seems more to be a case of common sense because whatever she was choosing to do did obstruct her driving, whether or not she is dyslexic.
For everyone else who has ever been in a frustrating fender bender, I'm sure that they all wish they had the luxury of suing a large corporation for their fault. Hopefully, this case will not turn out to be an example to many other people who can also blame their mistakes on a company in the forms of suing them. Since she is facing criminal charges, it will be interesting to see how Starbucks responds to this. And for every other coffee drinker, it's pretty simple - don't read while you are driving!
Chuggin McCoffee is a coffee fanatic that has spent the entirety of his career cultivating and studying all of the best uses and brewing styles for optimal coffee and espresso flavor. His specialty site for all coffee needs, supplies, and flavored coffee can be found at www.thecoffeebump.com.
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