Wrecking Crew Demolishes Wrong Housing Duplex Following Google Maps Error (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A demolition company has leveled the wrong housing duplex after one of its employees was misled by a Google Maps error. Instead of bringing down a house destroyed by a tornado in Rowlett, Texas at 7601 Cousteau Drive, the wrecking crew demolished another home at 7601 and 7603 Calypso Drive, a block away. Owners of the second house were waiting for their house to be repaired, since it didn't suffer major damages in the tornado. The demolition company's CEO dismissed the incident as "not a big deal." The wrecking crew used Google Maps to find the house to demolish because they were brought in from a neighboring town, but failed to double-check with a neighbor before starting their work. A Google engineer confirmed that Google Maps was showing the wrong information.

Comments

Probably in the EULA

[Anonymous Coward]

"All information contained with Google Maps is provided for Entertainment purposes only and should not be relied upon for complete accuracy, up to and including: GPS guidance for self-guided weapons systems, Pizza Delivery, and House Demolition."

WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like you should be using official zoning maps from the city for something like this...

Re: WTF?

[bill_mcgonigle]

or, y'know, check the demolition permit taped to the front door? I don't care who issues those permits, per se, but a crew needs to at least verify that.

One project I managed involved a demo - there was a ton of paperwork and I had to sign papers, on-site, as owner-representative before the excavator started in.

Re: WTF?

[Hognoxious]

He didn't spell it "per say". He's in the top quartile just for that.

Re:WTF?

[aix tom]

And Yes... there was such a time as Before Google Maps, hard as it may seem to imagine.

Ah, someone else who remembers Mapquest. ;-P

Doesn't anybody double check?

[Snotnose]

How hard would it be to go to the nearest intersection and make sure you're on the right street, and double check the street address?

I think the (former) homeowners should get to stay in "not a big deal"'s house until new houses are built. "Not a big deal" can live in a tent on the construction site.

Re:Doesn't anybody double check?

[twotacocombo]

How hard would it be to go to the nearest intersection and make sure you're on the right street, and double check the street address?

According to Google maps, Cousteau turns into Calypso, and street view verifies this. The streets form a loop, and there is only one set of signs in that area, in a non-intersection corner where one street name arbitrarily turns into the other. Due to the tornado, this sign pole may not even currently exist. I can completely see where the confusion lies with this situation. While the demo crew are at fault for lack of due diligence, who's the fucking imbecile at the city planning office that approved the same exact street number for two houses within spitting distance of each other on what is essentially the same street?

Re:Doesn't anybody double check?

[hey!]

I think you're correct, which is why in my neck of the woods you can't just roll up to a house, say, "this looks like it", and start tearing it down. You need to get a permit.

The permit application requires a photo of the house you intend to take down. You have to prove you know what you're doing, e.g., that you've had the utilities, especially gas turned off. You have to have a pest control company eradicate any rats nesting in the structure that might move onto adjacent properties. You've got to notify the police and fire department well in advance and if they determine there is a public risk or nuisance you've got to pay for a police and/or fire detail. Then you've got to notify all the abutters by certified ail and post a demolition notice on the actual structure to be demolished seven days in advance.

Yeah, it's a lot of rigamarole, and I'm sure people in much of the rest of the country can't imagine living under that much regulation. On the other hand, we can't imagine having our house demolished by mistake. And somehow developers still manage to make a living, so I don't think it's too much to ask..

Re:Doesn't anybody double check?

[starblazer]

It should be a requirement for any developer, house builder, or city planning department to be a delivery person for at least 6 months. You will see the end of stupid addressing and small, hard to make out numbers REAL quick.

This rant brought to you by someone who has also been mistaken as Mr. Amazon.com man this past winter.

well, it was Nabors Demolition

[turkeydance]

and they demolished the neighbors.

Re:well, it was Nabors Demolition

[Anonymous Coward]

If you read the article, it has a link to the demolition company's web site. The site still has contact information on it, along with the hideously juicy slogan, "We could wreck the world," which they did for these unfortunate folks.

In the demolisher's defense

[NotDrWho]

Both the houses were white with shingle roofs.

Re:In the demolisher's defense

[TapeCutter]

Same physical street, with different street names for different sections. As an ex-taxi driver I can confirm that, regardless of the kind of map you are using, it is very easy to find the wrong address. There should have been a second, more reliable, identifier for the demolition, eg: a demolition notice pinned to the front door.

Not a big deal?

[gurps_npc]

This is not the first time this has happened.

I think by law, that whenever this happens, the company 's owner should have their house destroyed - along with all of their personal photos, keepsakes and see if they think it is a big deal.

Basic rule should be an estimate value of the house x 3 - if they don't sue. x 6 if you have to sue. Because emotional losses are far bigger than the physical ones.

Re:Not a big deal?

[thegarbz]

Given that it was a house with floors ripped out, parts of the ceiling and roof missing completely open to the sky I'm going to assume that anything that was still in the house probably had zero value as a result and it really was not a big deal. Providing the house gets rebuilt. The demo guys may have even done them a favour. Large scale repairs are often harder and take longer than groundup rebuilds.

But then everyone in this discussion seems to be making a lot of assumptions including TFA which claims a suit is likely because of what the CEO said instead of what the company has done.

self driving cars

[phantomfive]

I'll get modded down for this, but remember this is the same technology that's supposed to be giving us self-driving cars within the next five years.

Skin Markers

[Anonymous Coward]

You think contractors demoing the wrong house is bad? There's been many cases where people have gone in for surgery and they've removed or operated on the wrong limb!! Crazy!
 
I work at a place that distributes medical supplies and one of the things we sell is 'skin markers', just small markers to write things like "THIS ARM" on patients before operations. It was such a problem that they actually had to come up with a solution for it to stop happening!

Re:Skin Markers

[wonkey_monkey]

"Aha," says the surgeon. "So this is the thumb that has something wrong with it?" Ka-chop.

He made it too easy. Should've written "The other thumb is not the incorrect one." Everybody loves logic puzzles!

Re:Skin Markers

[meerling]

Are you suggesting that as a rule of thumb?

And Sync tried to send me over a cliff.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

A couple years back the wife and I were driving in NV, from Topaz Lake to Hawthorne, over a very dirt-track-across-the-desert, scraped every couple years (but still an official state route), road.

As we approached Hawthorne, going through a pass in a range of hills, the nav system told us to turn left about a mile early and take a little road that went a couple car lengths and then off a cliff, maybe a couple hundred feet high.

Seems there had been an old road there, back in the pony-express days, which had gone away nn a landslide long ago. We're guessing the USGS still showed it, the map company had included it in their database, and the nav system had computed it could save us a couple tenths of a mile by taking the shortcut.

Fortunately we are aware of such pathologies, especially in remote areas, and were on the alert for it.

Re:As Ronald Reagan said about the Soviets...

[XxtraLarGe]

It was a Russian proverb they taught HIM.

You're right that it was a Russian proverb, but it was taught to him by one of his advisors. He would say it repeatedly whenever he met with the Russians just so they didn't get any sneaky ideas.

Obligitory Dilbert

[Rik Sweeney]

http://dilbert.com/strip/1989-...