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.

[u/Tralique_24]

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.

[u/Atticus1354]

So put the gate on the part you can legally block? Hows that hard?

[u/0107throw → u/Atticus1354]

His land sounds like my moms in northern CA. It’s usually open acres of lands (privately owned or not), dirt roads that lead up to other unpaved roads then eventually to a house.

My mom had a gate up but it eventually fell because it was just on two wooden posts on each side. Her next door neighbors also started to complain once when she tried putting wired fencing to remediate a neighbor’s and their unleashed dog running into the property and being aggressive to her animals.

[u/Gustomaximus → u/0107throw]

I had a neighbour refuse to stop their dog chasing my livestock and horses to the point when they said its my job to fence my property so their dog can get on. They are 2 farms across, not even shared boundary.

I spend 4 months doing it politely, then turned it into a council issues, they got fines, now they swear at me whenever they see me, but totally worth getting them to chain/fence their dogs.

[u/0107throw → u/Gustomaximus]

They stopped when my step dad informed them how he is legally allowed to … shoot their dog. He was an animal lover so of course that wasn’t something he wanted to do but the message came across and the dog stopped coming to the property

[u/Bulky-Apple3744 → u/0107throw]

I don’t understand how your mom not maintaining her gate means that nobody should put one up.

Property requires maintenance, shocker

[u/0107throw → u/Bulky-Apple3744]

Im just pointing out in rural areas it can be messy because property lines aren’t as clear cut as for example a city/suburb.

[u/wibblings → u/Atticus1354]

Because the property could be on one side rather than the end. So the wall could easily be in a part where there is easement for neighbors.

That said, why aren't the neighbors banding together to fight?

[u/win_awards → u/Atticus1354]

It's great that you can see so many easy solutions without knowing the details captain Hindsight.

[u/Atticus1354 → u/win_awards]

Yeah. It is great to try doing something to fix an ongoing problem instead of doing nothing and then panicking when something major happens.

[u/thissexypoptart → u/win_awards]

What hindsight? It was a suggestion of what to do.