The family of a US man who was killed after driving off a crumbled bridge claims he died because Google’s maps were outdated.
Philip Paxson’s family is suing Google for his death, claiming that Google was irresponsible in failing to reveal that the bridge had collapsed nine years before.
Mr. Paxson died in September 2022 while attempting to drive across a broken Hickory, North Carolina bridge.
Google’s spokesman stated that the corporation was looking into the allegations.
On Tuesday, the case was filed in Wake County civil court.
According to the family’s lawsuit, Mr Paxson, a father of two, was driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday celebration at a friend’s house and was in an unfamiliar neighborhood at the time of his death.
His wife had already driven his two girls home, and he had stuck behind to help clean up.
“Unaware of local roads, he relied on Google Maps, expecting it to safely direct him home to his wife and daughters,” the family’s lawyers said in a statement announcing the complaint.
“Tragically, as he drove cautiously in the rain, he unwittingly followed Google’s out-of-date directions to what his family later learned was known for nearly a decade as the ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ crashing into Snow Creek, where he drowned.”
The family of a US man who was killed after driving off a crumbled bridge claims he died because Google’s maps were outdated.
According to the lawsuit, when the bridge fell in 2013, local people frequently contacted Google to request that their online maps be changed.
According to the Charlotte Observer, vandals removed the barriers regularly put over the bridge entrance.
The complaint also accuses three local businesses of failing to maintain the bridge.
“Our girls ask how and why their daddy died, and I’m at a loss for words that 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 such little regard for human life,” his wife, Alicia Paxson, said in a statement.
“We have deepest sympathies for the Paxson family,” a Google spokesman told AP News.
“Our goal in Maps is to provide accurate routing information, and we are reviewing this lawsuit.”
SOURCE – (BBC)
