Don’t trust your Sat Nav

By Andrew Hough Reuters - 2 hours 5 minutes ago

LONDON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The first official road signs to

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warn drivers about the dangers of trusting their satellite

navigation devices (satnavs) were introduced on Tuesday in a

Welsh village.

The signs, introduced by authorities in rural St Hilary, in

the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, to warn drivers about

placing too much faith in the directional gadgets, could be

brought in across the country if the trial is successful.

Problems were reported after foreign drivers found it

difficult to understand phrases such as "unsuitable for heavy

goods vehicles" but could understand pictorial notices, media

reported.

The four signs have been introduced around one particular

black spot in the village, where the electronic devices direct

truck drivers to a shortcut between the main M4 motorway and

Cardiff airport.

The road is far too narrow for many to travel down, causing

them to get stuck and sparking major traffic problems.

More than a dozen large trucks have become stuck in the

road in the past six months, according to traffic engineer Mark

Simpson who came up with the idea for the signs.

"We have had a series of problems with drivers getting into

trouble by trusting their satnavs and we needed to do something

about it," Simpson was quoted in newspapers as saying.

"They can send drivers on the most direct routes which turn

out to be narrow roads completely unsuitable for heavy and long

trucks and lorries. Satnav can be a wonderful tool for drivers

but it does have its dangers."

If successful, officials plan a national roll-out of the

signs to combat what is seen as a growing problem for

frustrated motorists, with recent figures showing that more

than four million of Britain's 32 million drivers rely on

satnavs.

Some have reported that software glitches have sent drivers

down one-way streets or up impassable mountain tracks.

One ambulance driver with a faulty satnav drove hundreds of

miles in the wrong direction while transferring a patient from

one hospital in Ilford east of London to another just eight

miles (13 km) away.

A spokesman for the Welsh Assembly regional government said

that officials would be "watching closely" the trial's results

before deciding whether to expand the programme.

He also said that officials from the Department of

Transport had been consulted and were also monitoring the

experiment.