After he died attempting to cross a collapsed bridge in his vehicle, the family of a local man is suing Google because its Maps app directed him to do so.

Philip Paxson was using Google Maps to navigate while driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party when the app directed him across a bridge that had collapsed nearly a decade prior, but lacked any kind of warning of the danger. Paxson family attorney Robert Zimmerman said:

For years before this tragedy, Hickory residents asked for the road to be fixed or properly barricaded before someone was hurt or killed. Their demands went unanswered. We’ve discovered that Google Maps misdirected motorists like Mr. Paxson onto this collapsed road for years, despite receiving complaints from the public demanding that Google fix its map and directions to mark the road as closed.

In addition to Google (and its parent company, Alphabet), the Paxson family is also suing two local companies who it claims were responsible for maintaining the bridge and failed to put up any warning signage or safety barricades.

Paxson said, “I still can’t understand how those responsible for the GPS directions, and the bridge, could have acted with so little regard for human life. No one should ever lose a loved one this way.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Consequences; Irresponsibility - When we put off or refuse to do the right thing when given a chance, the Lord will sometimes allow calamitous circumstances to unfold as the natural consequence of imprudent inaction; 2) Danger; Direction; Destruction – Ultimately, we must each take responsibility for the “road” we choose and not depend on others to make that choice for us (Prov. 16:25; Matt. 7:13)