Google Sued for Negligence After Man Drove Off Collapsed Bridge While Following Map Directions

Google Sued for Negligence After Man Drove Off Collapsed Bridge While Following Map Directions
The Google Maps app on a smartphone in New York on March 22, 2017. Patrick Sison/AP Photo
The Associated Press
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RALEIGH, N.C.—The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving his car off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps directions is suing the technology giant for negligence, claiming it had been informed of the collapse but failed to update its navigation system.

Philip Paxson, a medical device salesman and father of two, drowned Sept. 30, 2022, after his Jeep Gladiator plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court. Paxson was driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party through an unfamiliar neighborhood when Google Maps allegedly directed him to cross a bridge that had collapsed nine years prior and was never repaired.