The family of a North Carolina man is suing Google for negligence after he tragically lost his life, crashing into a creek below off a collapsed bridge. The crash was allegedly due to misleading directions from Google Maps, as reported by the Associated Press.
On September 30, 2022, state troopers discovered Philip Paxson submerged in his overturned pickup truck beneath a bridge that had collapsed nearly a decade earlier. Philip Paxson, aged 47 and a resident of Hickory, North Carolina, located approximately 60 miles northwest of Charlotte, had been returning home from his daughter’s ninth birthday celebration prior to the accident.
According to a post on Facebook by his mother-in-law, neither the destroyed bridge nor the road leading to it displayed any barriers or warning signs to caution drivers about the potential danger.
The Facebook post stated, “It was a dark and rainy night, and he was following his GPS, which led him down a concrete road to a bridge that dropped off into a river. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends. It was a totally preventable accident. We are grieving his death.”
In addition to Google, the lawsuit filed by the Paxson family also names several private property management companies responsible for the land where the crash occurred and surrounding areas.
In response, a spokesperson for the company said: “We have the deepest sympathies for the Paxson family. Our goal is to provide accurate routing information in Maps, and we are reviewing this lawsuit.”
Read also: Google Maps replaces fuel stations with charging points for electric vehicle drivers
More on the negligence lawsuit against Google
Legal representatives for the Paxsons allege that multiple individuals had attempted to notify Google about the washed-out bridge. They have included email correspondence from a Hickory resident who used the “suggest an edit” feature in 2020 in an attempt to prompt the company to address the issue. According to the attorneys, the company never responded to the suggestion.
In releasing a statement, Alicia Paxson, Philip Paxson’s wife, says, “Our girls ask how and why their daddy died, and I’m at a loss for words they can understand because, as an adult, I still can’t understand how those responsible for the GPS directions and the bridge could have acted with so little regard for human life.”
This tragic incident highlights a broader issue of deaths potentially linked to GPS navigation.
In 2020, an 18-year-old Russian motorist perished after following a Google Maps route through Serbia’s treacherous “road of bones.” In 2019, a truck driver in Jakarta, Indonesia, drove off a cliff after relying on a Maps route intended only for motorcycles, as reported by the Straits Times.
In 2015, 51-year-old Zohra Hussain died in a fiery car accident in Indiana after her husband, who was following his Nissan Sentra’s built-in GPS, drove off an unmarked toll road leading to a demolished bridge. Her husband, Iftikhar Hussain, sued the state of Indiana over the lack of barricades, according to the Chicago Tribune.
In 2010, a pedestrian also sued the tech giant for supplying unsafe directions in its Maps tool after she was hit by a car on a Park City road. The pedestrian, Lauren Rosenberg sought $100,000 in damages after the accident when she tried to cross a busy state highway with no pavements at night and was hit by a car.
These and many more have led to questions surrounding the accuracy of the directions supplied by Maps for users. Recently, the company replaced fuel stations with charging points for electric vehicle drivers on its Map tool, offering a convenient solution for those in need of a quick power-up.
Read also: Here are some pros and cons to consider before upgrading your device to iOS 17
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