Skip to main content

Air freight

In Switzerland, an Opel delivery van had to be airlifted from a mountain, following a navigation error by its driver. The driver followed the directions given by his satellite navigation system, which told him to follow a narrow track that wound slowly upwards.
February 21, 2012 Read time: 1 min
In Switzerland, an Opel delivery van had to be airlifted from a mountain, following a navigation error by its driver. The driver followed the directions given by his satellite navigation system, which told him to follow a narrow track that wound slowly upwards. Trusting his GPS system, the man drove as directed up the narrow pathway until the vehicle could move no further. The van finally became firmly wedged between a fence and a stone wall and unable to turn around or reverse, the driver called the emergency services. They provided a helicopter to remove the van. However a local fireman praised the driver's off-road skills in negotiating the goat track in his Opel van.

Related Content

  • Speed limiters will limit fatalities, says the TRL
    July 29, 2019
    The soon-to-be mandatory speed limiters on vehicles in the European Union will make all safety other features more efficient, according the UK-based Transport Research Laboratory. In March the European Parliament passed a law that safety features such as intelligent speed assistance and advanced emergency-braking system must be installed in new vehicles from May 2022. They form part of the EU’s new suite of safety measures. TRL, which provided input for the European Commission regarding the formulatio
  • Topcon machine control units take the heat off an Alaskan contractor
    December 4, 2015
    Juniper, spruce, cranberry, cottonwood and rose. Most people think of pine trees and berries amid beautiful country fields. But for one contractor based just below the Arctic Circle in the US state of Alaska, the names represent a successful job completed using machine control. Valley General Construction recently finished a US$350,000 contract for the upgrading of country roads in the local borough of Matanuska-Susitna. The colourful names belong to roads in a heavily wooded residential subdivision located
  • Swiss roundabout goes underground
    February 7, 2012
    The Swiss, well-known for their tunnel constructions, have enhanced their reputation with the recent Gotthard Tunnel breakthrough which has created the world's longest tunnel. And in Bern, a roundabout is being re-positioned almost 10m under the ground, which will transform a somewhat dismal road intersection into an attractive gateway to the country's capital. PERI provided a comprehensive formwork solution for the realisation of the massive beams, reinforced concrete slab along with the conically-sh
  • JCB celebrating 70th anniversary
    October 21, 2015
    UK construction equipment manufacturer JCB is celebrating its 70th anniversary. The firm was founded on October 23rd, 1945 by the late Joseph Cyril Bamford in a lock-up garage in the Staffordshire market town of Uttoxeter. It was the same day as his son Anthony, now Lord Bamford, was born and as Mr Bamford remarked “being presented with a son tended to concentrate the mind and when you were starting at the bottom, there was only one way to go and that was up.” The foundation for the growth that was to