Earth to Drivers: GPS Systems Are Not Infallable

We see a variant on this story about once a month: A GPS system told me to drive my car into a lake. A GPS system told me to run my car into a building. A GPS system told me to make endless U-turns and eventually I ran out of gas. This time, a British woman trusted her GPS when it told her to drive her car onto a set of train tracks. When the train smashed into her car it was carried half a mile down the line. The driver escaped without injury (as she wasn't in the car when it was hit).

The good news is that the driver wasn't completely daft: She didn't actually drive along the train tracks as if it was a road. Rather, she came to a metal gate market with a red circle, got out of her car, opened the gate, drove forward onto the tracks, then got out to open another gate blocking the way, only then noticing the locomotive bearing down on her.

Every GPS system includes countless warnings about using the device responsibly, something to the effect of checking for real road conditions and using common sense when following the instructions of a GPS device. Remember that GPSes are not infallible: They make the best guess about how to get from point A to point B the same way you would if you were looking at a map of a foreign area. And GPS maps can often be two to five years out of date, especially when displaying points of interest like restaurants and gas stations.

Got a GPS disaster story to share? Let's hear it! 

LINK: Sat nav driver's car hit by train