The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving a car on a collapsed bridge while he was following Google Maps directions wants to sue the giant for negligence and says the company was notified of the bridge’s collapse. But it doesn’t improve its navigation system.
Phillip Paxson, a sales representative and father of two daughters, drowned after his car plunged into Snow Creek in the Hickory area on Sept. 30, 2022, according to a family lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court.
Paxon was returning home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party when Google Maps told him to cross a bridge that collapsed nine years ago and has not been repaired to this day.
For his part, his wife, Alicia Paxson, said in a press release, “Our two daughters ask how and why their father died, and I don’t know what to answer to make them understand, because as an adult I haven’t yet. Knowing how to understand who is responsible for underestimating the directions of the global navigation system and the bridge to human life.
State police officials who found Paxon’s body in his semi-submerged car said there were no barricades or warning signs on the flooded road.
The bridge is not maintained by local or state officials, and the development company that originally built it has gone out of business, the State Patrol said.
The lawsuit names several private property management companies responsible for the bridge and adjacent land.
In the years before Paxon’s death, several people reported the bridge collapse to Google Maps and urged the company to update the route information, the suit said.
