Google sued over fatal Google Maps error after man drove off broken bridge

Google is being sued by a widow who says her husband drowned in September 2022 after Google Maps directed him over a collapsed bridge in Hickory, North Carolina.

Google did not appropriate its map service regardless of warnings concerning the damaged bridge two years earlier than the accident, in line with the lawsuit filed Tuesday by Alicia Paxson in Wake County Superior Courtroom. Philip Paxson “died tragically whereas driving residence from his daughter’s ninth birthday celebration, when he drove off of an unmarked, unbarricaded collapsed bridge in Hickory, North Carolina whereas following GPS instructions,” the grievance mentioned.

The Snow Creek Bridge reportedly collapsed in 2013 and wasn’t repaired. Barricades had been usually in place however “had been eliminated after being vandalized and had been lacking on the time of Paxson’s wreck,” in line with The Charlotte Observer. The lawsuit has 5 defendants, together with Google and its proprietor Alphabet.

The opposite defendants are James Tarlton and two native enterprise entities referred to as Tarde, LLC and Hinckley Gauvain, LLC. Tarlton and the 2 companies “owned, managed, and/or had been in any other case answerable for the land” containing the bridge, the lawsuit mentioned.

“The Bridge Defendants refused to correctly keep the bridge, leaving it in a horrendously harmful state of disrepair for years,” the lawsuit mentioned. “The Bridge Defendants refused to position affordable and correct barricades in entrance of the hazard to alert drivers of the lethal drop and did not enact inspection measures to make sure that barricades remained in entrance of the hazard till needed repairs occurred.”

Lawsuit: Google did not make prompt edits

Photos supplied by the legislation agency point out that “Highway Closed” indicators and limitations had been positioned on both aspect of the bridge, although these limitations weren’t there on the time of the accident.

In September 2020, “Hickory resident Kim Ellis used the ‘Counsel An Edit’ function on Google Maps to position the Google Maps Defendants on discover that the Snow Creek Bridge had washed away,” the lawsuit mentioned. In November 2020, after Google took no motion, “Ellis once more contacted the Google Maps Defendants by way of the ‘Counsel An Edit’ function pleading for Google Maps to replace its navigation system,” the lawsuit mentioned.

The lawsuit offers the affirmation emails Ellis obtained from Google after each of her reviews and says that she “was not the one citizen who notified Google of the damaging situation.”

“As of April 6, 2023, and upon info and perception at different occasions thereafter, the collapsed bridge unbelievably was nonetheless depicted as a satisfactory highway on Google Maps when routing from [the birthday party site] to the Paxson’s residence, regardless of the Google Map Defendants having been positioned on discover but once more of the hazard,” the lawsuit mentioned.

The household realized after the accident that residents referred to as it the “Bridge to Nowhere,” in line with legislation agency Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky’s press launch. “We have found that Google Maps misdirected motorists like Mr. Paxson onto this collapsed highway for years, regardless of receiving complaints from the general public demanding that Google repair its map and instructions to mark the highway as closed,” legal professional Robert Zimmerman mentioned within the press launch. He mentioned that Google “refused to appropriate its mapping algorithms regardless of repeated pleas” from residents.