# You can lead an idiot to water...



## CHamilton (Feb 10, 2015)

Woman follows Google Maps along closed road, into water


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## Devil's Advocate (Feb 10, 2015)

Seven billion people means more idiots than ever before. Where is her portrait and name? This sort of "blame the GPS" nonsense needs to be a license suspending event with the navigation device confiscated since it's apparently being used in lieu of a functioning brain.


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## tomfuller (Feb 10, 2015)

We had a much sadder case in Oregon in late November 2006. A Cnet techie missed his turn to go to the coast off I-5. He started up the Forest Service-BLM road that goes through Agness. He ended up dying in a chute canyon near the Rogue River. His wife and 2 children lived by staying with the car after they burned all 5 tires.

I was on that road about a month before but I had some good maps in addition to my GPS


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## JayPea (Feb 10, 2015)

I have heard so many of these cases: a man using GPS drives off the end of a pier.......a woman drives down railroad tracks (didn't she think the drive was juuuuuuust a tad bumpy?????? )...........a man drives up a set of stairs and crashes into an outhouse. I think sometimes DA is a wee bit harsh  but in this case absolutely, positively spot on. I remember the case Tom is talking about; it made our local news.

When I bought my first GPS, just for the neck of it I used it to "navigate" between my mom's house and my own. At one point it directed me to drive through a farmer's field (this because the road had been realigned several years before and the map hadn't been updated) and a few miles later directed me to take a route that would first require me to drive up a steep embankment and crash through a barn before taking a road which was abandoned about 50 years ago and which you'd be lucky to get a motorcycle up. Needless to say I didn't follow its directions, leaving it to frantically keep telling me to make U-turns. :lol: Whenever I take a road trip I do use it but also take good maps with me as well.


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## Bob Dylan (Feb 10, 2015)

My Train/GPS story:

When my old gf and I spent the night @ an airport hotel in El Paso after flying in, she used the GPS on her

Verizon phone to get us to the Amtrak Station ( I was catching #2 to SAS) downtown which is not that easy to get to!

Things went fine down I-10, exit, turn left, drive down Santa Fe St. for X amount of blocks, then turn right onto X Street where its 2 blocks to the Station.

Only problem was they had built a New Hotel where we were supposed to turn Right and the next Street over was One Way Going South clear to the Border Crossing to Mexico!

I was able to direct her how to get back to the street that would get us to the Station, but the GPS on her Verizon phone, just like JP' s story, kept squeaking to turn around!

Moral of the story: Know where you're going before you leave, and don't put your faith in a "Big Brother" Machine!


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## fairviewroad (Feb 10, 2015)

At least in this case, the GPS device did not give erroneous or out-of-date information. The road in all likelihood was the best way to reach

her destination in normal circumstances, and perhaps just 24 hours earlier or later would have been a suitable route.


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## SarahZ (Feb 10, 2015)

People need to use their eyes as well as their ears. I use the Google Maps app on my phone, which provides voice navigation. I've caught it giving the wrong directions a couple of times, such as trying to tell me to turn the wrong way on a one-way street or not telling me to turn soon enough (e.g. the South Shore parking lot - the map sends you to the actual building, but the parking lot is on the other side of the street, about 1/4-mile earlier). I simply followed the traffic signs and let the GPS re-calculate. It's not like the GPS is going to slap you across the face if you don't obey it 100% of the time. 

I used to handle claims from people who would turn left as soon as their GPS told them to, not taking oncoming traffic into consideration. They just did whatever the machine told them. If you can't handle listening AND looking, maybe GPS isn't right for you.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Feb 11, 2015)

Sure is rainy up in the PNW. I'm guessing the idiot didn't know where to go and decided to risk it down a closed road in case that would get her to Point B. Probably was running late, too. Big mistake!


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## NorthShore (Feb 12, 2015)

JayPea said:


> I have heard so many of these cases: a man using GPS drives off the end of a pier.......a woman drives down railroad tracks (didn't she think the drive was juuuuuuust a tad bumpy?????? )...........a man drives up a set of stairs and crashes into an outhouse. I think sometimes DA is a wee bit harsh  but in this case absolutely, positively spot on. I remember the case Tom is talking about; it made our local news.
> 
> When I bought my first GPS, just for the neck of it I used it to "navigate" between my mom's house and my own. At one point it directed me to drive through a farmer's field (this because the road had been realigned several years before and the map hadn't been updated) and a few miles later directed me to take a route that would first require me to drive up a steep embankment and crash through a barn before taking a road which was abandoned about 50 years ago and which you'd be lucky to get a motorcycle up. Needless to say I didn't follow its directions, leaving it to frantically keep telling me to make U-turns. :lol: Whenever I take a road trip I do use it but also take good maps with me as well.


Would have made one helluva action flick, though.


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