Posted on 10/08/2022 3:37:51 PM PDT by george76
The Hickory bridge had been inoperative for about nine years, and any barricades had been washed away
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A North Carolina man is dead after his GPS led him to a defunct bridge that dropped off into a creek on Sept. 30.
Phillip Paxson, a 47-year-old father of two girls, had been driving his Jeep at night from his oldest daughter's birthday party in Hickory when his GPS led him to a bridge that has been inoperative since heavy flooding in July 2013 destroyed it.
"It was a dark and rainy night and he was following his GPS which led him down a concrete road to a bridge that dropped off into a river," Paxson's mother-in-law, Linda McPhee Koenig, said in a Tuesday Facebook post. "The bridge had been destroyed [nine] years ago and never repaired. It lacked any barriers or warning signs to prevent the death of a 47 year old [sic] father of two daughters. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends. It was a totally preventable accident. We are grieving his death."
Now, Paxson's family is trying to bring attention to the tragedy they believe could have been avoided with proper maintenance or even just signage and barricades from the city warning drivers not to drive toward the bridge.
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"This was a preventable accident, the bridge he went over at night had a gaping hole and their were no barricades
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locals have established a makeshift memorial, told the outlet. "He drove to his death through that 20 [foot] ravine."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
How does a 15 foot, 2000# cement Jersey barrier get washed away? How far off the main road was he?
Yeah, I know the details. He wasn’t stupid. He was trusting. Trusting in technology. I’ve gotten off the freeway because GPS told me to do so, only to get right back on the onramp.
That doesn’t make me stupid.
It was a private road, the state or county aren't responsible for this guy's death. He was off roading on private property, on a rainy night.
The Dukes of Hazard would have made it!
Seriously, that looks like it’s been out of commission for quite a while. The GPS can’t be up to date 100%, but if a bridge has been out for a year or two, it ought to be reflected in the electronic map.
I also read the rest of story.
He was not stupid.
It is not “Gods Positioning System”. Others have died looking for a way out of remote areas of Nevada and Idaho using gps.
So?
How does that make him stupid?
When you die, then can we say you are stupid as well for dying?
Would you follow this person?
That’s a little harsh, bro....
Did your gps tell you to get back on the freeway?
If not, why did you do it??
That road cone wasn’t shaped like an angel was it? I think it was. Thank God you got out and walked.
That is it.
Bypass Road out or closed, it is on YOU!
I am that driver who does NOT trust the back-up screen camera, and ALWAYS look back just like the old days. Technology cant be trusted.
Waze, Google drive, they’re good “directions” but not 100%. Use your own diligence obviously.
If I’m stupid, yes.
American’s just YAWN at lazy, incompetent government. We seem to accept it as just another fact of life
We’re getting closer to 3rd world status every day.
“It was a private road, the state or county aren’t responsible for this guy’s death. He was off roading on private property, on a rainy night.”
Yes, but understanding that requires one to read the article, and there is a long-standing tradition on FR to post comments on an article without actually reading it.
We lose a couple a year out here in the desert during the summer. GPS sends them down sandwashes saying they are roads. They get stuck in the middle of nowhere and die from the heat and no water. The worse thing is they are not intelligent enough to take one look and say “that is not a road”, they just follow the GPS without questioning it. They assume it is smarter than they are. Citidiots...
This is an unacceptable death. 4 pieces of K-rail temporary concrete barrier placed at both ends of the collapsed bridge would have prevented this. 4 pieces. Cheap. The road dept screwed up.
Counties don’t usually have hundreds of those just laying around for big storms
Our county, which floods yearly have maybe a dozen, and I’ve never seen them used. Flooding often happens before crews can place barricades. Concrete ones require machines that can lift them at the loading point, and the offloading point and trucks than can haul them. An 8’ barricade like they use on highway weigh 4 tons and still can’t be seen easily in the dark
Didn’t you say this was a deserted road? At the end of the day, this was on the driver
Thumbs up.
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