Top 10 Sat Nav Mistakes

Gone are the days when people used to spend hours trying to locate where they were on a map; today we have the ‘Sat Nav’ which uses GPS to direct drivers from one location to another, however sometimes ignoring that reassuring voice you hear is the best option; as these drivers found out when they were unlucky enough to have been misdirected by their Sat Nav systems.

10: Taxi Driver takes royalty the wrong way

When Earl Spencer’s daughter was hoping to go and see Chelsea v Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in London, she called a taxi to get her there, only for the driver to put the wrong ‘Stamford Bridge’ into his Sat Nav. After confirming with the control team if it was correct, the driver headed into a small village outside York, some 230 miles away from the desired location, causing the passengers to miss the football match.

9: Kebab & Chips, and a side order of a car stuck on a railway track

A student who was working part time as a takeaway driver to earn some extra money was on his way to deliver an order to an area he didn’t know, and was told by his Sat Nav to ‘turn left’ onto the railway track, only to get caught between a cattle grid and the track. After trying to move the car with his passenger’s aid, the driver admitted defeat and the police were alerted. Trains in the area were stopped for over an hour whilst the car was removed from the tracks. The food went cold and had to be thrown away.

8: BMW driver seeks adrenaline rush

The Sat Nav isn’t always right – as a BMW driver found out when he was left hanging on the edge of a cliff, having followed directions down a Pennine footpath in Todmorden. The car was dangling over a railway bridge, which meant trains had to be stopped whilst the vehicle was recovered, and resulted in the driver being sent to court for driving without due care & attention.

7: Learn to spell before you drive!

A pair of Swedish tourists driving to Capri in Italy were sent 400 miles in the wrong direction, after the incorrectly spelt the town as ‘Carpi’. Their error was only discovered as they reached a local tourist office asking for information on the local sights.

6: If in doubt, accelerate!

A Belgian truck driver racked up £20,000 worth of damage after admitting he ‘panicked’ and decided to accelerate when he followed his trusty Sat Nav into a cul-de-sac and got lost. Residents of Wadebridge in Cornwall were understandably annoyed when the driver destroyed a roundabout and crushed a car in his moment of madness.

5: At the motorway; head into oncoming traffic!

A retired nurse was on her way home from a party at 3am, only to be told to head the wrong way up the M5 into oncoming traffic. After wondering why cars were going past her in the opposite direction, the driver put her hazards on and slowed down to 20mph, before the police were alerted. A £450 fine was handed out for driving without due care & attention.

4: No Ho Ho Ho for these Christmas shoppers

Shoppers from Gloucestershire decided to head to Lille in France to buy their loved ones some extravagant presents, and arranged a coach trip costing £150 each for the privilege of doing so; but ended up in Belgium after the coach driver entered the wrong Lille as his destination into the Sat Nav. They were 100 miles from where they wanted to be, and lost 4 hours shopping time, meaning they only had 2 hours to find presents before heading home. “It was ridiculous,” said one unlucky passenger. “The coach driver obviously had two Lilles to choose from on his Sat Nav and he picked the wrong one.
“A few of us started to wonder what was going on when we saw signs for Eindhoven, which clearly isn’t in France. But the driver wouldn’t be told – he insisted he knew what he was doing.

3: Rock on to… Skegness!

When a Turkish lorry driver was told to deliver goods to Gibraltar, he entered the “Rock of Gibraltar” into his Sat Nav, only to end up in Skegness, some 1600 miles away from where he needed to be! He was directed to Gibraltar point near Skeggy, rather than the sunny Gibraltar south of Spain.

2: Turn right into the river Nar.

A taxi driver was blindly following his Sat Nav, and was told to head into the River Nar. Rather than ignoring these directions after they sounded odd, the driver persisted, carried on 200 yards down the river before becoming stuck in the riverbed, and had to be recovered by a tractor. An onlooker commented: “The minibus still had its engine running and headlights on and he was sitting in it with his trousers rolled up around his knees.
“I shone a torch in the river and there were fish swimming around the headlights.”

1: The £96,000 mistake

The costliest mistake in our list; a £96,000 Mercedes SL500 sinks into a Leicestershire river after being told to head into it by a Sat Nav on her way home from a christening party. The lady owner was lucky to be alive, as the electrics failed causing the windows to open, allowing more water to flood the car within seconds. Fortunately, there were locals nearby who wasted no time in pulling the driver from the vehicle which was later confirmed as a write off.