When Possible, Make a U-Turn

Consider this: you're driving around on a dark, cold night. There are no streetlights to help and the rain and fog have stolen your visibility. But thank god you have your satellite navigation system. You can be at ease knowing that your GPS will guide you home safely tonight. Or will it?

That's what an Ontario woman thought Tuesday night as she got caught in the rain northwest of Trenton. Unfortunately her dependence on the device led her right into a marsh.

It took rescuers hours to find her in the isolated area. Luckily the woman was not injured by the incident.

The GPS had led her over a kilometre off the main road.

Reliance on GPS devices have caused several driving mishaps since their inception.

Last Christmas an Oregon couple were stranded for three days in a wildlife reserve forest. Making their obligatory Christmas rounds, the couple were headed towards a timeshare they owned for Christmas Day when their trusty GPS suggested an alternate route that promised to save them a few minutes of travel time. After travelling 40 kilometres on the unmaintained road the car inevitably got stuck and they remained without a cell signal for three days. Luckily it was Christmas time and they had a few gift baskets in the trunk filled with provisions to keep them satisfied.

Of course Garmin, the manufacturer of the GPS maintained that the directions given by their device are only suggestions and cannot be held liable for any incidents that may occur as a result of those suggestions.

Sometimes these GPS devices can cause destruction. Last June a demolition crew was misdirected to a worksite and ended up tearing down the wrong house. Last March a driver nearly drove his BMW off a cliff!

There are a plethora of mishaps involving misdirection by GPS devices - the Swedish couple who drove 660 kilometres in the wrong direction and found themselves in the Alps instead of the coast. The British woman who drove her Mercedes into a river.

what ever happened to the good ol' map? You know checking out where you're going before you go there and making sure there's no cliffs or marshes in your way. Has it fallen out of fashion to know where you're going BEFORE you get there?

Reliance on these devices has reduced driver knowledge. So how about the next time you go to type in your destination into your GPS...take some precautions to make sure you don't end up driving into a river.