Man Dies After Google Maps Led Him Off Collapsed Bridge: Lawsuit

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — The family of a North Carolina man is suing Google over claims that the Mountain View-based company’s Maps app led him off a long-collapsed bridge and into a creek, where he drowned.

Philip Paxson’s family filed the lawsuit this week in connection with the Sept. 30, 2022, death.

“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 wife, Alicia Paxson, said in a news release from the law firm representing the family.

Philip, Alicia and their two young daughters moved from Florida to Hickory, North Carolina, shortly before he died, according to the news release. The day of the incident, Philip stayed late at the house of family friends to help clean up after a joint birthday party for his then-9-year-old daughter and the friends’ son before driving toward home in dark and rainy conditions, the news release said.

He followed Google’s outdated directions, which led him to a “bridge to nowhere,” and he crashed into Snow Creek and drowned, according to the news release, which said Hickory residents had repeatedly tried to get Google to route traffic away from the bridge.

"We have the deepest sympathies for the Paxson family,” a Google spokesperson said in a prepared statement. “Our goal is to provide accurate routing information in Maps and we are reviewing this lawsuit.”

Additional defendants include the owners of and parties responsible for the collapsed bridge along 24th Street Place Northeast, according to the news release.

"Mr. Paxson was completely unaware that the Snow Creek Bridge collapsed in 2013, just like others who narrowly escaped the same fate,” said Larry Bendesky, a managing partner at Philadelphia-based Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, which is representing the Paxson family, in the news release. “His trust in Google Maps, and the failure of the road and bridge-keepers to do their jobs, cost him his life.”

The lawsuit was filed in North Carolina Superior Court in Wake County by local co-counsel from the Ricci Law Firm, according to the news release.