The Paxson family had just celebrated the birthday of one of their two daughters at a friend’s house in Hickory, North Carolina. It was the end of September 2022. After the party, the mother and the little ones returned home but Philip, the father, stayed to help clean up.

It had started to rain and the night looked especially dark. The Paxsons had recently moved to the area and Philip did not know the area well. So he consulted the route back home to Google Maps. After a few kilometers, He fell off a collapsed bridge in 2013. He fell from a height of six meters and drowned.

His wife, Alicia PaxsonDevastated, she tells NBC News that she struggles “every day to understand how something so unimaginable and horrible could happen.” Alicia is clear: “There was no barrier.” Now, a year after the tragedy in North Carolina, the widow is suing Google Maps. Because the GPS advised her late husband an outdated route which turned out to be fatal. Robert Zimmerman, the Paxson family’s attorney, adds on ABC News: “For years, Google advised people to route over a collapsed bridge, despite users reporting this danger.”

In 2020, a woman formally asked Google to remove the controversial route from GPS. They assured that they would review it but they have not lifted a finger until today. Which reinforces Alicia Paxson’s lawsuit: “It could have been prevented 100% in my opinion”. The family, devastated, demands justice for Philip’s irreparable loss.