A father-of-two died in a horrific accident after GPS guided him off the edge of a bridge that was destroyed years ago.

Phil Paxson was a loving father and husband who died in a car accident on September 30 while returning home from his daughter’s birthday party.

According to the reports, Phil and his wife, Alicia Paxson, held a birthday party for one of their two daughters in Hickory, North Carolina.

Following the event, the mother returned home with her daughters while the father stayed behind to help with the cleaning.

After the was done, he sat in his car, turned on the navigation, and headed back towards his home through Catawba County.

On the way, the man’s GPS reportedly guided him on the bridge that was destroyed back in 2013.

Since there were no barriers or blockages preventing him from passing, the man put his trust in his GPS only to run the car off its edge and lose his life in the process.

Following the tragic incident, the man’s family called for accountability as they insisted his death was preventable.

“How is it nine years that this did not happen, and why did it have to be him? Like, why do my kids have to have no dad now, you know? Who’s responsible? Somebody is responsible,” Alicia said.

Linda McPhoee Koenig, Paxson’s mother-in-law, added: “He was following his GPS which led him down a concrete road to a bridge that dropped off into a river.

“The bridge had been destroyed 9 years ago and never repaired.”

The grieving family also insisted that there were no “barriers or warning signs to prevent the death of a 47-year-old father of two daughters.”

“It was a totally preventable accident,” Linda added.

According to the state troopers, barricades put in place to alert drivers of the broken bridge were apparently removed, leaving the entry to the bridge unprotected.

Since counties in North Carolina don’t maintain roads, the responsibility usually falls to their original developer.

“In North Carolina, counties do not maintain roads. In general, owners of private roads associated with subdivisions could be the subdivision developers, a homeowners association, or the property owners in the subdivision,” Catawba County officials explained in a statement to WCNC.

In this road’s case, the developing company already dissolved years ago. As a local property management company revealed, they are meeting with attorneys to determine who is responsible for the road leading to the broken bridge.

As Realtors Land Institute Carolinas president Eric Andrews explained, disputes and confusion over who is responsible for certain roads remain a common problem.

“[Original owners] might go bankrupt. They might die, the company might not exist anymore. So you can’t have this expectation of some kind of developed or entity being responsible for that road in perpetuity,” Andrews says.

Our thoughts remain with Phil’s family and friends during these challenging times.

 

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