Skip to main content

Which way now?

Drivers using GPS navigation systems are being urged not to trust their devices too closely by police forces. In the Australian state of Victoria, police are telling drivers not to throw away their maps after a series of incidents in which motorists in ordinary road cars have become stranded after following GPS directions and taking routes only accessible to four-wheel drive vehicles.
March 1, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Drivers using GPS navigation systems are being urged not to trust their devices too closely by police forces. In the Australian state of Victoria, police are telling drivers not to throw away their maps after a series of incidents in which motorists in ordinary road cars have become stranded after following GPS directions and taking routes only accessible to four-wheel drive vehicles. Similarly in the US state of Vermont, highway authorities are telling GPS users to use common sense as a number of drivers have had to call for help after getting stuck when using snowmobile trails.

Some drivers could benefit from brushing up on their geography skills, with a Syrian lorry driver having found his way to the Gibraltar Point nature reserve in the UK, 2,500km from Gibraltar on the southern tip of Spain where he was supposed to deliver a load of cars. The new owners of the cars had to wait a little longer. Meanwhile a Polish driver found that his vehicle was not amphibious, following GPS instructions that resulted in him driving into a reservoir. Luckily, the man and his passenger were rescued.

Related Content

  • Apple’s aviation inaccuracies
    February 19, 2014
    Two drivers in Alaska caused some concern to aviation movements by following directions from Apple Maps. The drivers first crossed the taxiway and then the runway at Fairbanks Airport. How they were able to enter the supposedly secure airport however has not been revealed and nor have their IQ ratings. The drivers ignored numerous signposts and painted markings saying that the area they were entering was restricted to aircraft and not for road vehicles. The airport authorities erected barriers until the map
  • TISPOL Conference: autonomous vehicles high on safety agenda
    February 2, 2017
    Safety and autonomous vehicles exercised the minds of some of Europe’s senior police officers at the recent TISPOL European Traffic Police Network Conference in the UK. The European Union looks like missing its target of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020. Just when European police forces are trying to get back on target, along comes the autonomous vehicle with all its inherent safety issues.
  • Very under the influence
    December 18, 2017
    When a doctor crashed his car in the UK recently police were quickly at the scene of the incident and breathalysed the driver. He was found to have a blood alcohol count three times that of the permitted level. He explained that immediately after the crash he crawled from his wrecked BMW, opened a bottle of vodka he had with him and drank from this in a bid to steady his nerves. However this explanation was not believed in court as the man had been drinking the night before and was thought to still have
  • Back road drama
    December 2, 2013
    A man in South Carolina had a lucky escape after being trapped in his car for 33 hours after it crashed off the road in a rural area. After making a wrong turn and ending up on a gravel road, the man lost control of the vehicle despite his slow speed and the car fell 12m from the roadway. He prayed, called for help and beeped the horn repeatedly and was finally rescued after the driver of a forestry vehicle stopped nearby and heard the car horn. Emergency services were called to the scene and they were able