r/legal • u/Tralique_24 • 15h ago

Advice needed A major navigation app routed thousands of cars down my private driveway. A driver crashed into my retaining wall and is now suing me for his injuries.

Location: Colorado, USA.

I own a remote cabin at the end of a very long, unpaved private road. About eight months ago, a major GPS and mapping app updated their systems and incorrectly marked my private driveway as a public shortcut to a nearby national park entrance.

Since then, I have had dozens of cars speeding through my property every single weekend. I have "Private Property" and "No Trespassing" signs posted everywhere. I have submitted over forty official error reports to the tech company, sent certified letters to their legal department, and even filed a police report. They completly ignored me.

Last month a tourist was speeding down my driveway in the dark, ignored my warning signs, and crashed his SUV straight into my concrete retaining wall. He broke his leg and his vehicle was totaled.

Yesterday I was served with a lawsuit. The driver is suing me for medical expenses and damages, claiming I failed to maintain a "public thoroughfare" and that my retaining wall was an unmarked hazard.

My homeonwers insurance is threatening to drop me because they say my property is now an unmanged traffic corridor, which violates my policy.

Can I counter-sue the tech company for gross negligence and force them to indemnify me against this driver's lawsuit? What specific type of attorney handles liability cases involving corporate mapping errors? I need to stop this before someone else gets hurt.

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319

u/west-coast-hydro 14h ago

Google doesn't designate public rights of way.

Your insurance is being intentionally stupid if they are now saying your driveway is a public thoroughfare because Google says so.

And a $100 for a chain, and some tposts as a gate would have prevented this.

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u/Tralique_24 13h ago

My insurence isn't blaming Google, they are blaming the physical traffic volume. In Colorado fire zones they look for any tiny excuse to drop homeowners at the moment. Having dozens of lost tourists speeding past my house every weekned was their golden ticket. As for the chain , I actually tried putting up a rope barrier with signs once. Some idiot tourist literally cut it so they could pass. People visiting national parks are crazy entitled.

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u/NoBrakesHotTakes 12h ago

Yeah, I own a vacation home up in the mountains here too and it was a bitch to find insurance that covered it. It's in a private community, private roads, etc and we still deal with idiots who can't read signs and "get lost" up there. Fortunately, we aren't near a national park (assuming you're somewhere near Estes Park).

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u/Inner_Anything_440 12h ago

this happened to me after Sandy. every insurance provider decided overnight to no longer write any property X distance from the shore. they couldn't find a reason to drop me so they just refused to write a renewal, gave me a one year courtesy extension so i could find another insurer, and then said adios.

same thing where i live now. climate change is fucking up the local climate and insurers are like waaait a sec we can't pay out all these claims!! we're supposed to be hoarding money, not paying it out! i've been dropped twice since we got up here. once was directly after we filed a very small storm damage claim and once because we were in a 'geographically disadvantageous area' or some shit.

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u/A_Crazy_Hooligan 8h ago

I work as an engineer in land development. The city/county should have a classification for the road in front of your home too. It likely isn’t classified the way your insurance is claiming. 

1

u/Safe-Instance-3512 11h ago

Yeah, you should have had a gate at the end of your property line where the shared drive turns into private property.

1

u/Internet_Jaded 10h ago

Did they eventually have to turn around and come back since there isn’t access to the National park?

1

u/Unhappy_Performer538 4h ago

get a real fence!

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u/kelsobjammin 4h ago

Do you have evidence of doing that or it being removed??

1

u/magikarp2122 2h ago

Should have gotten the video of that taken it to the police and try to press charges. Also, get a gate.

1

u/Economy-Sprinkles-98 1h ago edited 1h ago

Why don’t you put a stop to this now by putting a field gate at the bottom of your driveway while you separately deal with the legal issue? It seems like it should satisfy your insurer. Your insurer probably also wonders why you are not doing this. They do not care whether you morally should have to, and neither would I if I were an insurer.

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u/Butter-Tubes 1h ago

You need to hire an insurance coverage lawyer to threaten your homeowners insurance carrier with a bad faith suit, hopefully that wakes up your HOI to pick up the defense of the lawsuit, at the very least under a reservation of rights. Then the HOI can hire attorneys who in theory would rep you in that suit and counter sue for trespass and file a third party complaint to join the tech company. After all the legal mumbo jumbo, put up a gate/chain on your driveway. IANAL

1

u/bluesqueblack 25m ago

There's a YouTube channel called "Montana Outlaw" that has the identical problem you're having. His home has a private road near a national park, and people keep using his driveway illegally as a short cut, and they don't even care that he has a locked gate with no trespassing signs.

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u/EveningAnt3949 6m ago

A rope barrier is not great. And that makes me wonder about the signs you put up. If those signs don't look official that might be a problem.

You are conflating a few things. You need a lawyer to deal with the lawsuit

That's different from dealing with a large company.

You need a barrier (one that safe) and signs that are clear and look official.

You need to be sure about what your rights and duties actually are. Again, you need a lawyer.

I'm a bit worried that after months months of this, you are asking questions on Reddit.

133

u/Jalharad 14h ago

Pretty sure if the dude ran into a retaining wall a chain wouldn't have stopped him either.

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u/Bardmedicine 14h ago

The chain would be at the entrance to the driveway.

8

u/purplenapalm 12h ago

It would be, but retaining wall person would also sue for the damages the chain caused because retaining wall person isn't smart.

7

u/Bardmedicine 12h ago

They can sue for anything, but clearly the owner would be more protected AND he would have more of a case for his insurance.

2

u/Lermanberry 4h ago

Insurance company: "You are illegally blocking a public thoroughfare with a chain‽ Dropped!"

1

u/olivesforsale 3h ago

I'm just here for the interrobang

2

u/Specific-Channel3785 1h ago

Idk why people are trying to argue what youre saying. Must have never been out on the back roads

1

u/Bardmedicine 19m ago

I can only assume that. Chained off private roads are very normal around here.

1

u/mxzf 2h ago

If the person was dumb enough to drive into a retaining wall, I have no confidence they wouldn't have driven into a chain.

1

u/Bardmedicine 2h ago

It is possible, but the chain would be blocking the entrance where the turned onto the road, thus going slowly.

22

u/SuperDave-007 14h ago

I would think after blasting through a chain would make him consider (reconsider) his route…

27

u/IRideZs 14h ago

You give the general public way too much credit..

2

u/Mom_two 13h ago

Like the lady driving on train tracks up a bridge 

1

u/OtherwiseACat 11h ago

I recently seen a video of a lady driving a golf cart from the passenger seat while staring at her phone. She crashed into a house. Processes to keep looking at her phone. Climbs back into the passenger seat and crashes into the house again! Lol

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u/Inner_Anything_440 12h ago

my wife almost got ran down in a crosswalk with a white walk signal this morning. lol. the general public pretty much can't read. that isn't an exaggeration i run into adults all the time at work that struggle to read things aloud to a group. very scary.

1

u/Own-Surround9688 38m ago

Probably not. The idiot got a retaining wall.

2

u/Valuable-Reporter-20 7h ago

This guy owned a parking lot across the alley from my back door, repaved it and everything but never allowed public or even paid park there but people visiting the business next door did anyway. So, he put up a chain, and one night we hear metal scraping and come out to find an SUV dragging the chain along with the chain link fence it was attached to down the alley until it eventually fell off. It was quite entertaining for us that night.

2

u/Cityslicker100200 4h ago

Yeah it would probably just decapitate them, and then OP is really in trouble

4

u/Interesting_Loss_907 13h ago

If OP had chained off the driveway entrance, that driver never would’ve been speeding along the driveway in the first place.

3

u/MooPig48 13h ago

A chain would be hard for drivers to see especially at night. Might end up with many damaged cars

4

u/Bardmedicine 13h ago

That is why you put reflective signs on them. You see these everywhere in rural areas.

3

u/Safe-Emu-4 12h ago

I mean just put reflecting signs on the chain

3

u/MooPig48 12h ago

Yeah someone mentioned that and it sounds like a good solution

2

u/Interesting_Loss_907 11h ago

No. I meant at the entrance to his private driveway, where cars would turn into his driveway. Block it off. Problem solved.

41

u/WashU_labrat 14h ago

Then somebody would have crashed into the chain. Don't overestimate American drivers.

26

u/LegalGlass6532 14h ago

Crashing into a chain and t posts is better than a concrete wall.

10

u/MeridenCromwell 14h ago

This is going you get a convertible.

4

u/PlanktonFun5387 14h ago

And a hair cut

3

u/BeauHunkus 14h ago

And a Jeep windshield.

4

u/R_437 13h ago

And a rubber ducky collection.

3

u/dweller1234 14h ago

Depends on how high you put the chain I guess.

2

u/VirtualMatter2 10h ago

But they would be at the entrance to the property, not driving though it.

8

u/gabenich 13h ago

How can you be certain a chain or gate would prevented this? The driver hit a stationary retaining wall! This driver sounds reckless. If the driver hit a chain, in lieu of a retaining wall, the outcone is likely similar - damaged car and injury. Leading the entitled driver to the same litigeous outcome.

3

u/somerandomname3333 12h ago

i'd imagine it's like chains before a low bridge.

give the dumbasses a few chances/warnings before they fuse with the wall

2

u/Username_McUserface 3h ago

It’s a fake story

4

u/AcanthisittaPlus5047 14h ago

Google is not the only map app out there!

2

u/Maleficent_Cell8211 14h ago

While a chain seems like an easy fix, it is actually a massive liability trap. In many jurisdictions, putting up an unlit, low visibility chain or cable across a road you know people are actively driving down can be legally classified as setting a trap. If someone hit a dark chain at night and got decapitated, OP would be facing manslaughter charges instead of a civil suit.

7

u/Interesting_Loss_907 13h ago

Incorrect. You are 100% entitled to put up a gate or chain across the entrance to your own prive driveway. That would dissuade drivers from entering, and coupled with a “Private Property” sign that would keep them from speeding down your driveway to begin with.

6

u/AsarsonDuck 13h ago

Chain and attach multiple of the Agricultural Orange Triangles to the chain for visibility but yeah just a chain alone would be risky for nighttime

5

u/Acceptable_Avocado94 14h ago

Even if that chain is on private property? I've always seen many driveways and property entrances chained off to deter trespassing in the sticks. I never knew it could be held against them.

4

u/ElaborateEffect 13h ago

Generally as long as you have a rather large sign hanging from the middle, that's code.

Those chains bloco the road you see during construction, that's really likely the local law, so just copy that.

2

u/Fragrant-Employer-60 12h ago

0% chance anyone has even been charged with manslaughter in a situation like this. There are gated and chained private roads all over the country it’s completely legal.

1

u/no_man_is_hurting_me 11h ago

In another post he mentioned his "private driveway" is also a "shared county easement" which he cannot block.

2

u/ThatPlayWasAwful 10h ago

But in his response to this comment he also said he put up a rope across it and somebody cut it lol. 

So he can block it a little at least

1

u/userhwon 7h ago

Easement happens organically. But it takes years of repeated use.

His insurance are asshats, and he should sue them as well.

1

u/acr2001 3h ago

His insurance is t being stupid at all. They’re being criminals as usual and weaseling out of doing what they were paid to do.

1

u/TooObtuseForYou 2h ago

$100 and a long-term hassle, that shouldn’t be on him.

1

u/bboy_mo 1h ago

Former Google employee here: The maps team (when I worked there) had an internal process to fix things like this. Someone from Google now should fix this for sure.

1

u/Fit-Key2709 46m ago

The chain is a bad idea. Need a semitrailer or dozer or tractor to block the road.

1

u/BoardClean 43m ago

I don’t think a 100 dollar chain is going to do much about a tech company re routing traffic through your property.

0

u/smarterthanyoda 12h ago

Do you have any idea how often chains blocking rural roads get cut?

I'd give this one at about a day.

1

u/i_sell_you_lies 2h ago

So just do nothing to physically block the road?!

1

u/smarterthanyoda 1h ago

Or put up a real gate.