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Sat Nav Takes Driver to Cliff Edge
A car delivery driver from South Yorkshire narrowly avoided serious injury when he slavishly followed his Tom Tom sat nav instructions, leading him to the edge of a 100ft drop.
Robert Jones from Doncaster was on his way home from a night out in the Pennines, following an unfamiliar route. 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 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.
Drivers over-reliance on sat nav systems has been blamed for causing numerous accidents on Britains roads. Earlier in 2009 a young man was guided by his sat nav onto a railway line in Goole which led to him being banned from driving for 20 months.
A driver in Sussex had a similar experience, driving onto a railway line, but she avoided prosecution. She had tried to make her Toyota 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.
Around 1.5 million drivers have admitted they have performed sudden manoeufres due to instructions from their sat nav devices and there have been 300,000 accidents attributed to sat navs.
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