Family of Man Who Drove Car Off Collapsed Bridge Sues Google Maps

The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving off a collapsed bridge is suing Google after the company’s map app “misguided him to his death,” lawyers said Wednesday. 

Philip Paxson used Google Maps while driving home on a rainy night from his daughter’s birthday party when Google’s “outdated directions” sent Paxson onto the “Bridge to Nowhere,” where he crashed into Snow Creek and drowned, lawyers for the Paxson family said in a news release. 

The derelict bridge in Hickory was washed out years ago.

The family had initially planned a camping trip to celebrate the birthdays of Paxson's 9-year-old daughter and friend's son, but altered their plans to a camp-themed party at their friend's home instead due to rainy weather, the release said.

Paxson, a veteran, stayed behind to help clean up after the festivities ended and deployed Google Maps to guide him on unfamiliar roads back home.

He never made it.

“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,” Paxson’s widow, Alicia, said in the release. 

Alicia Paxson filed a lawsuit against Google in a Wake County court. Bridge owners North Carolina-based Tarde, LLC, James Tarlton, and Hinckley Gauvain, LLC, were also named in the suit. 

The lawsuit says that North Carolina residents repeatedly tried to get Google Maps to route drivers away from “the washed-out, collapsed bridge” but had no luck. Residents also asked the owners of the private road and bridge to erect proper barriers and warning signs. 

"For nine years, the community of Hickory was needlessly and senselessly placed at risk, when a road-bridge collapsed in 2013, and when one of the largest companies in the world refused to correct its mapping algorithms despite repeated pleas,” attorney Robert W. Zimmerman said in the release. 

“We've discovered that Google Maps misdirected motorists like Mr. Paxson onto this collapsed road for years, despite receiving complaints from the public demanding that Google fix its map and directions to mark the road as CLOSED.”