Philip Paxson, a medical equipment salesman and father of two, drowned on Sept. 30, 2022, after his Jeep Gladiator went into a river in Hickory, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court.
Google Maps app icon. Photo: AP
Paxson was driving home from his daughter's ninth birthday party when Google Maps allegedly directed him across a bridge that collapsed nine years ago and has never been repaired.
“Our daughters ask why and how their dad died, and I don't know what to say to make them understand...,” Paxson's wife said.
State officials found Paxton’s body in the overturned, partially submerged truck. The North Carolina State Patrol said the bridge was not maintained by local or state officials and the original construction company had gone bankrupt.
According to the lawsuit, many people have been alerting Google Maps to the outages for years and calling on Google to update route information on its app.
A Hickory resident said he used the map’s “suggest edit” feature in September 2020 to alert the company that Google Maps was directing drivers over the collapsed bridge.
A November 2020 email from Google confirmed the company had received the resident's report and was reviewing the proposed change, but the lawsuit claims Google has taken no further action since then.
“We have the deepest sympathy for the Paxson family,” said Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda. “Our goal is to provide accurate routing information in Maps, and we are reviewing this lawsuit.”
Mai Van (according to AP, SCMP)
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