A grieving family has decided to sue Google for negligence after a father of two died while following directions on his GPS app that allegedly led him directly to a newly collapsed bridge in North Carolina.
“Our daughters ask why their father died and I can’t find words they can understand because as an adult I still can’t understand how those responsible for GPS directions and the bridge act with so little respect for people could “live,” his wife Alicia Paxson complained in a statement after the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, according to The Independent.
In September 2022, father Philip Paxson was driving home from one of his two daughters’ 9th birthday party when his GPS app, Google Maps, allegedly prompted him to cross a bridge near Hickory that had never been repaired after it collapsed nine years earlier Men’s suit.
Without a warning sign on the road indicating that the bridge was in poor condition, the father, who was unfamiliar with the area, would have tried to cross the road before falling about twenty feet.
He was found lifeless in his overturned and partially submerged vehicle, according to the court document reported by British media.
The problem, however, is that in recent years many citizens would have notified Google Maps so that the company could update its information.
One of the area’s residents even received a receipt from November 2020 after using the application’s “suggest and change” feature to unsuccessfully inform the company that it was directing drivers to a collapsed bridge.
In the court document, the family also allegedly named several private property management companies that they said would be responsible for the bridge and adjacent land since the original developer company was dissolved, according to The Independent.