Google Maps allegedly led a man to his death. Now his family is suing the tech giant

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KEY POINTS
  • The family of a US man is suing Google for negligence, alleging its Maps app directed him across a collapsed bridge.
  • Philip Paxson drowned last year after driving off an unguarded edge and crashing about six metres below.
  • It is claimed multiple people had notified Google Maps about the collapse in the years leading up to Paxson’s death.
The family of a United States man who died after driving his car off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps directions is suing the technology giant for negligence, claiming it had been informed of the collapse but failed to update its navigation system.
Philip Paxson, a medical device salesman and father of two, drowned on 30 September, last year, after his Jeep Gladiator plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory, North Carolina, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court.

Paxson was driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party through an unfamiliar neighbourhood when Google Maps allegedly directed him to cross a bridge that had collapsed nine years earlier and was never repaired.

A statue of a large "G" in multi-colour outside a building.

Multiple people had notified Google Maps about the collapse in the years leading up to Paxson’s death and had urged the company to update its route information, according to the lawsuit. Source: Getty, Anadolu / .

“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,” his wife, Alicia Paxson, said in a news release.

State troopers who found Paxton’s body in his overturned and partially submerged truck had said there were no barriers or warning signs along the washed-out roadway. He had driven off an unguarded edge and crashed about six metres below, according to the lawsuit.

The North Carolina State Patrol had said the bridge was not maintained by local or state officials, and the original developer’s company had dissolved. The lawsuit names several private property management companies that it claims are responsible for the bridge and the adjoining land.

Multiple people had notified Google Maps about the collapse in the years leading up to Paxson’s death and had urged the company to update its route information, according to the lawsuit.
The Tuesday court filing included email records from another Hickory resident who had used the map’s “suggest and edit” feature in September 2020 to alert the company that it was directing drivers over the collapsed bridge. A November 2020 email confirmation from Google confirms the company received her report and was reviewing the suggested change, but the lawsuit claims Google took no further actions.

Google did not immediately provide comment on the lawsuit.

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