Driver Nearly Dies From Following GPS Instructions

[themoonisdown09]

A car was left teetering on a cliff edge after the driver followed sat nav directions down a Pennine footpath.

Robert Jones continued to follow the instructions when they told him the narrow, steep path he was driving on in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, was a road.

Mr Jones, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, only stopped when his BMW hit a fence above Gauxholme railway bridge on Sunday morning.

Police have charged Mr Jones with driving without due care and attention.

The 43-year-old, who works as a driver, said he relied on his sat nav for his job.

He described Sunday's incident, during a visit to friends in Todmorden, as "a nightmare".

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "Officers received a call at 11.18am on Sunday March 22 reporting that a BMW was hanging off the edge of a cliff off Bacup Road.

"The driver was a 43-year-old man from Doncaster. He has been summonsed to court for driving without due care and attention."


Article link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bradford/7962212.stm)

Maybe this is why it took so long for Apple to allow turn-by-turn applications into the App Store.

[edesignuk]

You arguably deserve to be removed from the gene pool if you decide to follow an electronic voice off the edge of a cliff. Fricking idiot.

[nick9191]

Another reason Apple is leaving turn by turn to third parties.

[saltyzoo]

Nothing like adding insult to injury. Not only does he get his car stuck and feel like a fool, he has to go to traffic court and pay a fine....

[arkitect]

I was reading this yesterday and I wondered to myself:

At what stage does common sense kick in?
How about that gut-level self-preservation instinct?

Some people are just born plain stupid.

[Don't panic]

The machine knows!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yyKrS8jwSY

[themoonisdown09]

The machine knows!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yyKrS8jwSY

I love that episode.

[OllyW]

How could you mistake that path for a road? :confused:

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/03/3-25-09-dumb-gps-driver.jpg

[Keebler]

maybe he was talking on his mobile at the same time.

doesn't justify it.

it's a frickin' computer....you use it to help guide you, but not follow it 100% exclusively.

[trule]

How could you mistake that path for a road? :confused:

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/03/3-25-09-dumb-gps-driver.jpg

Maybe he was getting some ... :o

[themoonisdown09]

How ironic... AppleInsider just posted this article: Apple filing details safe touch-screen navigation system (http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/26/apple_filing_details_safe_touch_screen_navigation_system.html)

[Abstract]

Does he realize that having sat-nav does not mean you can just keep your eyes closed?

[trule]

How ironic... AppleInsider just posted this article: Apple filing details safe touch-screen navigation system (http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/26/apple_filing_details_safe_touch_screen_navigation_system.html)

I think BMW has the patent on that already, perhaps MB too, and Lexus ... sorry Apple, too late on that one :D

[chuckcalo]

What? He let his GPS drive for him.

[LinuXtreme]

This article reminds me of the joke that I used to use as my email sig: "I'm convinced my GPS hates me. It keeps telling me to turn when I'm on a bridge".

Sounds like the GPS doesn't like him ;)

[hexonxonx]

You arguably deserve to be removed from the gene pool if you decide to follow an electronic voice off the edge of a cliff. Fricking idiot.

QFT. To bad he didn't keep driving.

Once while driving through Arizona about a year ago, my GPS started saying I was off road and to make a right turn soon so I could get back on the road. I could clearly see that the road had been shifted a few hundred feet to the right so there was now a huge seperator in between both directions. This was in the middle of the desert somewhere and the GPS software hadn't been updated to reflect the change. If I would have followed it's instructions, I would have been driving through the desert running over plants and bushes and things. I was tempted to do so just so I could blame it on the GPS.

[chrmjenkins]

A new generation of men rejoices as now, they are never lost.

In other news, a new scrapyard is being built at the bottom of Breakneck Gorge. The owner was quoted as saying, "When I heard about the location becoming available, I knew it was too good to pass up."

[heehee]

We nearly died when we went to Mont Tremblant following the GPS. Well, I'm exaggerating. :p

We followed the GPS through the mountain route instead of the highway route. It would be fine if we weren't driving a rental Colbalt with all seasons going up a curvy hill for an hour with 5 inches of snow on the ground, ditch on either side and SUVs tailgating and honking at us. :D

[Counterfit]

^Awesome av! :D
The 43-year-old, who works as a driver,

Not anymore!

[djellison]

Some people are just born plain stupid.

Quite - this guy deserves everything coming to him- repair bill for car and driving fine.

Doug

[plinden]

Well, to be fair to the driver, there are plenty of rural roads in the UK and Ireland that would barely qualify as a footpath. The path in the picture posted above doesn't look any worse than the single lane (and I mean single lane, if you meet traffic one of you has to pull off into a gateway) public road you would take to get to my in-law's house in Mayo.