Tech company faces negligence lawsuit after Philip Paxson died from driving off a North Carolina bridge destroyed years ago

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129 points

neither the destroyed bridge nor the road leading to it had any barriers or warning signs to alert drivers of the hazard.

Well it seems clear who is actually to blame here.

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45 points

Seems like most of the blame goes there but

a bridge that had collapsed nearly a decade earlier.

Lawyers for the Paxsons allege that several people have tried to flag the washed-out bridge to Google and have included email correspondence between a Hickory resident who tried to use the “suggest an edit” feature in 2020 to get the company to address the issue. Google never responded to the suggestion, allege attorneys.

It’s collapsed a decade ago and they’ve even tried to get Google to mark it so on their maps, unsuccessfully. Google must have some responsibility to the maps and routing.

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40 points

No they don’t. Christ 🤦‍♂️.

It’s 100% on the local government to handle that shit. There are hundreds of sources for map data and I bet you most of them aren’t up to date.

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11 points

Google Maps gave incorrect routing advice resulting (on their part) in a person’s death. It was a decade out of date, it had been brought to their attention and they did nothing. They still used that data in their routing. Obviously they have some sort of responsibility here imo.

There are hundreds of sources for map data and I bet you most of them aren’t up to date.

Idk why you think I’d think differently if it was some other company, routing provider etc. If it was a municipal roadside map that showed that you’re free to drive off that bridge then it would be the same. Or even a private roadside tourism map.

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2 points
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17 points

Please refer to the Google Maps Terms of Service: https://www.google.com/help/terms_maps/
By using the service, every user agrees to these terms.

Section 3:
Actual Conditions; Assumption of Risk. When you use Google Maps/Google Earth’s map data, traffic, directions, and other content, you may find that actual conditions differ from the map results and content, so exercise your independent judgment and use Google Maps/Google Earth at your own risk. You’re responsible at all times for your conduct and its consequences.

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4 points

You can’t just guide someone off a cliff and say “hey, I said I wasn’t sure if that’s the route, so I have zero responsibility”. The idea that that terms of service absolve them of any part in it is just lol

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12 points
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-4 points
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8 points

I’d say municipality/landowners, Google and the driver themself.

Municipality, land owners for not marking it, fixing it, making sure nobody mistakenly drives there. Google for routing him over it. Also the driver too for their part. Though not knowing the specifics it’s hard to say how much responsibility everyone has exactly but I’d say most of it lies on the municipality/landowners. Depending on who is supposed to mark those things over there.

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-7 points
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