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

  • Russian road rage
    February 22, 2012
    ARussian has turned road rage into revenge by ramming other road users. The minibus driver grew so upset with the behaviour of other road users he decided to take matters into his own hands by deliberately failing to brake or swerve to avoid a collision. The impacts were comparatively minor and did not result in any injuries to any vehicle occupants. Police however were able to identify the driver as being the cause of the problem when video clips were posted on the Internet. The man had fitted a video came
  • Are drones homing in on road construction?
    August 4, 2015
    It may be early days for using drones – unmanned aerial systems (UAS) -- to map construction sites, but technology and legislation are moving in that direction. At the moment drones can fly within only a 500m radius of the ‘pilot’ standing on the ground, making the flight area a 1km diameter. This is the key limiting issue for any sector, especially road construction, says Jonathan Gill, a robotics engineer and a qualified drone pilot for the past seven years. The logic is that a drone remains withi
  • Safety concern for mobility scooter users
    August 11, 2025
    There is safety concern for the UK’s mobility scooter users.
  • Holiday traffic jams
    October 3, 2018
    In the Northern Hemisphere the summer means time for families to head off on holiday. At this time of year, many busy routes become jammed as holidaymakers head north, south, east or west, all in search of some rest and recreation. In the UK for example, the start of the school holiday period typically leads to families taking to the roads, with massive spikes in traffic volumes as a result. Some areas are particularly bad. The highway routes lying roughly between Munich in southern Germany and Milan in no