Sat Nav Leads to 100 Foot Drop
Where Do You Live?
A South Yorkshire car delivery driver nearly went over the edge when he followed sat nave instructions that took him to the brink of a 100 foot drop.
Robert Jones was following an unfamiliar route home after a night out in the Pennines. He mindlessly followed his Tom Tom sat nav instructions even when it directed him down a steep lane that was completely unsuitable for vehicles. It was only when is silver BMW 5 series car hit a fence on the edge of a cliff that he realized there was a problem.
Mr Jones was arrested and charged with driving without due care and attention. Mr Jones tried to blame his sat nav but was convicted, fined £370 plus costs of £500 as well as receiving 6 points on his license. After the case he said that he still used his sat nav and that it had never let me down before.
The popularity and reliance on sat nav systems has been blamed for causing many accidents in the UK. In early 2009 a young man was banned from driving for 20 months after being guided onto a railway line in Goole by his sat nav.
A similar thing happened to a driver in Sussex who avoided prosecution after driving onto a railway line. She had tried to make her Mazda contract hire company responsible as she said that they had set up her sat nav system.
Drivers have been reminded that they are responsible for their sat nav systems, even if they were supplied and fitted by their contract hire or car hire company. If sat nave instructions lead somewhere that is unsuitable it is the drivers responsibility to ignore the instructions.
Many drivers have admitted performing sudden manoeuvres as a result of instructions from their sat navs and as many as 300,000 accidents are estimated to have been caused by such actions.
Leave a Reply