Hello,
I am currently writing an article for a local county council road safety group magazine on Sat Nav survival, with some tips for using Sat Navs safely etc etc.
I would like to include a few funny 'real life' stories in the article from people who have had bad/amusing experiences with sat-navs. So if anyone has anything they would like to share I would appreciate that. If you could leave your first name and city/town if you dont mind that being published in our magazine that would be great.
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you... :)
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Sorry to rain on your parade, but if it's for a road safety magazine, are you going to include the stories where sat nav has been cited as contributing to accidents, some of them fatal?
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That is going to be the basis of our article, tips for how to use them safely IF you do use them. E.g. placing them where they are goign to cause distraction or in the way of where an airbag could be deployed etc etc
We would like to make it a bit more interesting though to find out about any mishaps people have had with them.
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An older chap, should know better who works on a rival company, drives a full size car transporter, and uses one of these things, why i shall never fathom.
I get regular reports of him reversing through town centres and along A and B roads as he despite so many hash ups follows the spawn of the devil blindly wherever it tells him to go, which often sends him (60 odd ft long and 16ft high) through small town centres and elsewhere right up to low/hump back bridges and weight limited river crossings.
A clever little device if used as a guide to getting around unfamiliar towns/cities once you've reached your destination, but needs common sense when out on the open road.
A young chap i know left Hitchin to travel to Northants, he phoned someone close to me to let them know he would be late as he'd just had to turn round as he entered the London congestion zone, it sometimes beggars belief people's trust in these toys.
I even hear of mainly youngsters that are unable to get to work following the same route daily should their sat nav be nicked...i'm at a loss for words.
We have a vehicle manufacturer supplied sat nav, wonderful bit of kit, very clever and once programmed works extremely well, possibly superior to many aftermarket.
Once programmed, hah, the instruction book for the sat nav is the same thickness as the handbook, the second and last time we used it i managed to program the thing in 20 minutes (yes i'm a Luddite, but i can program my mate's tom tom in 30 secs first time using it with no instructions).
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I was thinking more of tragic cases such as Nathan Doud or David Poulsford - google the names
Edited by Nsar on 12/02/2009 at 13:15
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my satnav was resting as i was away on business (by train)
it was set to "avoid motorways" as the last time i had used it the motorway had multiple crashes etc
anyway the missus takes it to go one juntion up an empty motorway and ends up doing a 3 hour treck round the country lanes... absolutely beggars belief
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my Girlfriend was in York yesterday, and programmed her postcode in to get home (50 miles north) it took her round the ringroad and back to the Hilton hotel stating that she had reached her destination LOL!
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Would be well worth mentioning in your article the concept of a "Night Mode", something included with every sat nav and not exactly hard to turn on.
Countless people driving around at night with these things set at maximum dazzle and plonked in the middle of the windscreen. Must night blind anyone that has it fitted, since it hurts my eyes when I drive past on a dark motorway.
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If you do a google there was the taxi who was supposed to be going to stamford bridge (football ground), but went instead 200 miles the wrong way to stamford bridge (yorkshire?)
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Said taxi carrying members of the Royal Family I think. Loads of stories.
As a tip the one on night mode is a good one. Mine (a TomTom 720) does it automatically using a light sensor.
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Was in a ca the other day and the sat nav said turn right, she signalled right and was about to get into the right hand lane but I quickly pointed out it is no right turn. I knew this because I know the junction inside out (four banks a few here will know exactly where I mean). Luckily she managed to stay in the same lane but the sat nav could have caused confusion. There is a big mobile police camera at this junction too filming people doing an ilegal right turn or using the bus lanes ilegaly. The thing this junction has been no right turn for many years, so why on earth the database has not been updated so the TomTom would know this I don't know.
I have a sat nav as I have a strict speed limit beep on it, so if I go over 32 in a 30 it will beep at me (I never do) but it just means don't have to look at the speedo as often. It is also handy if I get lost, but I always use a traditional map and plan my before hand so I know what to expect.
Nothing worse than being lost in a stranger area especialy as I am new driver.
My TomTom goes into night mode too. Also I have sucessfuly clocked the satnav at 125mph!! in Italian made vehicle.
I also used my satnav a lot on the coach it kills the time and a couple of times I cought the driver exceeding 60 :(.
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Rattle - IIRC coaches are allowed to do 70 on a motorway.
Have tried to get mine to work on a commercial jet but no luck so far, but it gets extremely upset when cruising along at 160kts in a Seneca. ;-)
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I thought they were restricted like lorries ;) thanks for clearing that up. I guess the half loaded coach just didn't really have enough power to get to 70 and as it wasn't delayed there was probably no need.
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I went to a funeral of a fellow lorry driver a couple of weeks ago who sadly died in an accident in his lorry.
We all entered Grimsby Crematorium for this full military funeral and was asked to be seated for a moment and to quietly reflect on Andy's life.
From the row behind me a robotic voive announced to the silence
'You Have Reached Your Destination'
Someone had put the Satnav in their pocket and forgotten to turn it off.
Andy was a luddite and hated Satnav with a vengeance but would have loved that and I'm sure he went on his laughing!
Pat
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well done for getting the thread back on track.
A good story too PDA.
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