Google is being sued after bad map directions led a man to his death
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.
The collapsed Snow Creek bridge has now been barricaded. (Source; Hickory Daily Record)
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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Comments
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?
This isn’t the first time Google has been sued under similar circumstances. In all of the cases that I’ve been able to discover the driver has always been held 100% liable, even when mapping software contained errors or inaccuracies. But this is really a product liability case so you never know when a judge or jury will reconsider who bears responsibility, which is obviously why there are lawyers and media megaphones being used in this case. Precedent doesn’t always prevail.
I agree that local officials are to be held liable, specially since the bridge in question had collapsed years prior. The lack of sufficient warning signs falls on squarely on the shoulders of local highway management. My impression is that this lawsuit took a shotgun approach hitting anyone or anything remotely related.
I use Google maps, Apple maps, Waze, and a Garmin while my wife prefers paper maps when we’re traveling. The benefit of using these apps is that they tend to get updated far more frequently than paper maps. Some do offer helpful realtime updates to road conditions.
Recently while driving in my community, I turned onto a street that according to my Garmin (which is always updated to the latest version) showed the street I turned onto wasn’t a thru street. In fact my wife, as I turned onto the street remarked, “This isn’t a thru street”. Apple Maps (via my iPhone) showed it was a thru street. It was.
The street in question had recently (within 6 months) been extended which I knew because I'm a local. I’ll bet the city map one can get from the local Chamber office doesn’t reflect the change yet - but probably will in future printings. Perhaps Garmin will be updated at some point as well.
My point is, and what dewme and others are saying, is that these apps are not always accurate. They have no direct control and responsibility for keeping up to date. I always take directions given from these apps and devices with a grain of salt. But I also rely heavily upon state and local officials to keep drivers apprised of changing road conditions - something that clearly didn’t happen in this instance.
This nearly a year after the tragedy.
Again, no action was taken by people on the ground, in-situ, closest to the source of the problem, with eyes directly on the problem, even with public reports of other drivers being similarly misled, ... for 10 years. So after nearly 10 years of inaction and apparently zero follow-up by many layers of officials and aware citizens who could actually physically touch the problem at any time and in the blink of an eye, it came down to waiting for Google in the cyberspace to provide the last line of defense and a safety net.
This is in Hickory, NC, a thriving city with a population greater than 40,000 with a mayor, a city manager, a city council, a director of public services, traffic department, engineering division, street department, police department, etc. And none of them took any action to remedy a known hazard for 10 years? Was Google's map wrong? Yes it was, but the hazard that Google's mapping software unknowingly exposed drivers to through a map inaccuracy was a known hazard that was identified to local officials, was fully avoidable, and was the responsibility of local citizens and their representative officials who fully understood the magnitude and severity of the hazard to eliminate or mitigate ... but they did nothing for 10 years until Google's map issue exposed their neglect and inaction against a well known, correctable, and avoidable hazard resulted in a fatality.
You could say that Google ultimately and unknowingly became the last line of defense in avoiding a hazard that was allowed to remain in place through local negligence, ineptitude, and inaction. Google's map error could only have led to disaster because the hazard was allowed to survive for 10 years. Additionally the driver is ultimately responsible for piloting his vehicle and determining the safety of the road immediately in front of him or her whether or not a navigation tool of any type is employed. I don't believe Google would ever sign-up for being the last line of defense in any scenario where those immediately responsible for dealing with hazards in-situ, including the driver and/or a local or national traffic authorities have failed in their responsibilities, thus implicitly transferring responsibility to Google. The same is true of Apple, Garmin, Tom Tom, etc. But that is exactly what this lawsuit alleges.
Also, it is not out of the realm of probability that a self-directed driver looking to explore a little bit off the beaten path, say with their jacked-up 4x4, to have driven down that same path and ending up in the same river. I've been on several similar excursions down unmarked roads. The hazard was there and ripe for disaster and waiting for something bad to happen - for 10 years. Google's mapping error could only have resulted in the tragic outcome that occurred due to the 10 years of undeniable local civic incompetence and irresponsibility.
If this was on private land or in a wilderness area and relying on a stable private bridge, taking things cautiously would be the drivers responsibility as the bridge could have failed weeks, days, or hours earlier, or perhaps even non-existent as this one was and without notice. Being careful the first time thru when you don't know for a fact what's ahead is simple common-sense.