The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving off a collapsed bridge as he followed directions given on Google Maps is suing the tech giant for negligence, saying it didn’t update its navigation system after the span washed away nine years prior.
Philip Paxson was driving home from his oldest daughter’s birthday celebration on Sept. 30, 2022, when his Jeep plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory, causing him to drown, based on a lawsuit filed Tuesday by his family.
The 47-year-old father of two was unfamiliar with the neighborhood he was driving through on a dark and stormy night and was directed by Google Maps across a bridge that collapsed nearly a decade earlier and was never repaired.
“Our girls ask how and why their daddy died, and I’m confused they will understand because, as an adult, I still can’t understand how those liable for the GPS directions and the bridge could have acted with so little regard for human life,” his wife, Alicia Paxson, said.
There have been no barriers or warning signs along the roadway, which had been washed out and never mended following a 2013 flood.
Paxon’s automotive plunged off an unguarded edge and crashed 20 feet below, based on the lawsuit. State troopers discovered his body inside his overturned and partially submerged Jeep.
![Philip Paxson and his family](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/309471889_787716269101144_7441387122494473713_n.jpg?w=1024)
Multiple people told Google Maps concerning the broken bridge within the years leading as much as Paxson’s death — urging the corporate to update its route information — but nothing was ever done, the lawsuit alleges.
The filing also includes email records from one other Hickory resident who used Google Maps’ “suggest and edit” feature in September 2020 to tell Google it was sending drivers over the collapsed bridge.
A second email from November 2020 shows the corporate received the report and was reviewing the suggested change. The lawsuit claims that even after receiving the report, the tech giant took no further motion.
The bridge isn’t maintained by local or state officials, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said, and its original developer has since dissolved.
![Collapsed bridge](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-20-at-33923-PM-2.jpg?w=1024)
The lawsuit names Hickory businessman James Tarlton and the businesses Tarde LLC and Hinckley Gauvain LLC because the owners of the bridge and its surrounding land, the Hickory Record reported.
Tarlton, Tarde and Hinckley Gauvain are accused of failing to repair the damaged bridge and providing sufficient lighting to forestall people from crashing into Snow Creek.
The lawsuit was filed in Wake County, North Carolina, due to Google’s presence within the state, Alicia Paxson’s attorney Robert Zimmerman said during a press conference Wednesday.
“It still doesn’t seem real,” his grieving widow said during a news conference Wednesday.
![Car sinking into a lake.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/father-dies-in-bridge-crash-te-2.jpg?w=1024)
An obituary for Paxson said that he “had a lifelong affection for muscle cars, motorcycles, dirt bikes, boats, really anything with a motor.”
“He traveled the world along with his father-in-law riding motorcycles. He and his wife together with their two daughters enjoyed camping and boating with family and friends. Phil put his family first and his friends, almost equal, second,” the obituary states.
“He was larger than life, at all times ready for an adventure, with a everlasting smile on his face, he would offer you the shirt off his back or talk you out of the one on yours.”
With Post wires