On Friday September 30th, 47-year-old Phil Paxson was supposed to be home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party at Hickory in North Carolina in the US, but he never got that far.

The next morning, a state police road patrol found the 47-year-old man dead in a car crash lying on his roof in the river. Paxson is survived by a wife and two daughters.

Now the Paxsons believe the accident could have been easily avoided, according to others People.

GPS followed

On Tuesday, October 4th, 47-year-old mother-in-law, Linda McPhoee Koeing, shared a post on Facebookin which he describes part of the sequence of events on the night of the accident.

He insinuated that Paxson’s GPS had taken the 47-year-old man to a bridge that had been out of service for nine years.

– It was a dark and rainy night, and he followed the GPS that led him along the paved road to the broken bridge. The bridge was destroyed nine years ago, but never repaired, wrote McPhoee Koeing.

He further claimed that there was no warning of any kind that the bridge was broken – neither a sign nor a barricade.

– Predicted disaster

Since the accident, Paxson’s wife, Alicia Paxson, has shared several photos of the bridge crash itself Facebook pageas well as articles about dangerous bridges dating back to 2014.

– This is a known danger. 2014!! Predicted disaster. Phil had to lose his life to create awareness about it, he wrote as a comment in one of the articles.

According to the online newspaper of the local TV station Queen Town News suppose the bridge was taken by a mass of water in 2013.

Eat McDonald’s burger – got shot

– Someone is in charge

State police in North Carolina informed that initially barriers and signs were placed on the destroyed bridge, but these had to be removed.

– How did nine years go by without anything happening to the bridge, and why should he? Why should my children live without a father? Who is in charge? Someone was responsible, the widow said, according to the channel.

According to Queen City News, police said it was not the responsibility of state or local governments to control the bridge. At the same time, the Secretary of State stated on its website that the company that built the bridge no longer existed.

Working with lawsuits

Local TV stations WSOC-TV has interviewed the family attorney, Bob Zimmerman. He told them they were working on a possible wrongful death lawsuit and that they were in touch with real estate experts to determine who was responsible for the bridge.

Zimmerman also assumed that Paxson was using a GPS app to navigate, and confirmed that some apps were still creating driving routes over the broken bridge. In fact, residents have sent notifications to several companies regarding this matter.

– People in the local community warned that there were dangers to fix in 2020 and 2021, but nothing was done, Zimmerman told the TV station.

It starts with “pimples”

New obstacle

According to WSOC-TV, divers were working to find the phone after the crash. The Paxsons want the GPS company to stop sending road users to the bridge until it’s repaired again.

Local police have now asked the North Carolina Department of Transportation to create a new barrier. According to police officer Brian Black, it was originally the bridge owner who was supposed to do it.

– Someone should set up some kind of barricade in this area. The owner of the bridge, because it is private property. This area is not managed by the state, he said.