Family sues Google after man dies riding off collapsed bridge following Maps directions

Google is being sued by way of the circle of relatives of a North Carolina man who drove his vehicle off a collapsed bridge as he observed guidelines given by Google Maps. It's claimed that Google acted negligently, because it changed into allegedly informed that the bridge was no longer in use on numerous events, however didn't update its gadget.

Philip Paxson, a 47-yr-vintage scientific device salesman and father of two, drove his pickup truck off the edge of a bridge that had collapsed almost a decade in advance on the outskirts of Hickory, a metropolis approximately 60 miles northwest of Charlotte, on September 30, 2022. His mother-in-law wrote on a Facebook web page that he become returning home from his daughter's 9th birthday, including that there had been no caution symptoms on the bridge or the street main up to it.

Paxson's attorney, Bob Zimmerman, said that he had simplest recently moved to the place and turned into surprising with the nearby roads, relying on Google Maps. It's claimed that the navigation system directed Paxson to pass the collapsed bridge. "Tragically, as he drove carefully inside the darkness and rain, he unsuspectingly followed Google's outdated directions to what his own family later learned for almost a decade changed into known as the 'Bridge to Nowhere,' crashing into Snow Creek, wherein he drowned," Zimmerman said.

As stated by using AP, State troopers who observed Paxson's body in his overturned and partially submerged truck had stated there had been no limitations or caution symptoms along the washed-out roadway. According to the lawsuit, he had pushed off an unguarded part and crashed approximately 20 ft under.

The in shape also claims that Google had been notified approximately the collapsed bridge on a couple of activities earlier than Paxson's dying and have been urged to replace its system. A Hickory resident used Maps' "recommend an edit" feature to warn Google about the collapsed bridge in 2020, and even as the organization stated in an e-mail that it became reviewing the concept, it took no similarly moves.

The lawsuit additionally names several non-public property management companies that have been liable for the land and surrounding plots wherein the crash occurred. The unique bridge developer's organisation had dissolved.

"We have the deepest sympathies for the Paxson circle of relatives," Google spokesperson José Castañeda advised the AP. "Our goal is to provide accurate routing information in Maps and we're reviewing this lawsuit."

Alicia Paxson, Philip Paxson's wife, stated, "Our ladies ask how and why their daddy died, and I'm puzzled they are able to understand because, as an adult, I still can't apprehend how those chargeable for the GPS instructions and the bridge could have acted with so little regard for human life."