A DoorDash driver was charged after driving into a swamp in Middleton, Massachusetts, while attempting to deliver Dunkin’ Donuts.
“The operator stated that they were following their GPS to an address in Middleton while trying to deliver Dunkin’ Donuts for DoorDash,” the Middleton Police Department said in a statement.
The unidentified driver said GPS led her down a dirt road and into the water on Friday. Police said she was charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle and a Request for Immediate Threat License Suspension was filed with the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
The driver was able to leave the vehicle and walk through the woods to a nearby home with the Dunkin’ Donuts order in her hand. When first responders arrived, the vehicle was running and partially submerged, according to the police department.
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“We go, ‘There’s a lady in the swamp behind my house,'” resident Jim Delaney told WCVB-TV, adding that he assumed she was going to a neighbor’s house. “But once she got down to this point, you think she would’ve turned around, right?”
The DoorDasher was transported to a nearby hospital at her request.
“The vehicle was towed from the scene and there did not appear to be any leakage from the vehicle into the body of water,” the police department said.
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The Middleton Police Department declined to comment. DoorDash did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a similar incident, the widow of a driver who allegedly followed GPS navigation over an inoperative bridge and to his death filed a lawsuit against Google last week.
The driver, Philip Paxson, was leaving his daughter’s ninth birthday party and was using Google Maps to navigate on a stormy September 2022 evening, according to the lawsuit.
“I just struggle every day to understand how something so unimaginable and horrific could be allowed to happen,” Alicia Paxson said during a press conference. “To tell my daughters I don’t have the answers to the question: ‘Why is daddy gone and why isn’t he coming back?’”
“I don’t know how to explain this life-shattering tragedy that could have been so easily prevented,” she continued.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda expressed the “deepest sympathies for the Paxson family” in a statement.
“Our goal is to provide accurate routing information in Maps and we are reviewing this lawsuit,” he added.
