William Gallagher
A series of errors with Google Maps directions at the core ultimately led to a man dying after driving over a collapsed bridge — and his family is suing.
When Apple first replaced Google Maps with its own Apple Maps, the service was ridiculed for its errors, and it has taken years to bring it up to par. But a new lawsuit has highlighted the dangers of all mapping technology, as Google is accused of causing a death by its failure to accurately update its maps.
According to the local paper, the Hickory Daily Record, Philip Paxson, 47, died in 2022 after following Google Maps' directions to drive over a Snow Creek bridge. Reportedly, the bridge collapsed almost ten years ago.
Alicia Paxson, the deceased's widow, has now filed a suit in Wake County. The suit names Google, its parent company Alphabet, and local business people who own the bridge and nearby land, as all negligent and responsible for the death.
A spokesperson for Alicia Paxson announced the lawsuit to members of the press at the site, where the bridge has now been barricaded off.
"We've heard indications that cost may have been an issue in terms of fixing the bridge," said the spokesperson, "but as you can see, there could have been simple fixes."
Reportedly, Google was notified of the collapsed bridge. The accusation is that the company was therefore negligent in failing to update its directions.
Paxson says she wants to see that no one else is harmed because of the bridge.
The bridge outage is correctly shown as such on Apple Maps, and still is mapped incorrectly on Google Maps.
Left: Google Maps still shows a road over Snow Creek. Right: Apple Maps correctly shows the absence of a bridge
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23 Comments
Google fix your map in T___A it will route you in different directions even w/o traffic. Apple map is way better in this situation so I have to turned on both maps app. Sad
Re: “… announced the lawsuit to members of the press at the site, where the bridge has now been barricaded off
.”
It seems to me that local highway maintenance authorities are fully responsible for ensuring that proper signage, warnings, and barricades are put in place that correspond to changing local conditions. When did Google Maps become responsible for assuring that the local conditions and road and infrastructure maintenance and safety concerns are maintained in an up-to-date state at all times?
Google Maps is not an authoritative source of anything that it does not have direct control and responsibility for keeping up to date. It’s a convenience service, not a highway maintenance or public safety service. If a tree falls across a road Google is not responsible for updating its mapping service so drivers don’t run into the tree. It doesn’t matter if the bridge collapsed yesterday or ten years ago. Google has no responsibility at all. If their mapping service is out-of-date or deficient, like a paper map would be, it’s simply a sucky private service with no official responsibility whatsoever. If it sucks, stop using it.
The local officials responsible for road maintenance should have put up proper signage , warnings, and barricades as soon as the bridge was in an unusable state. Maybe they could get members of the press help them put out public notices to inform the local citizens that the bridge was no longer usable. Is that not the reason why the press was invited to the presser, to help get the word out so no one else makes the same mistake the victim made?
Yes, this is a tragic event. But why turn it into a deep pockets money grab?