slacker
Team HuskerBoard
Irregular News for 04.06.06
United Kingdom -- Drivers following the instructions of their satellite navigation systems to a village called Crackpot are being directed to the top of a 100ft cliff, it was reported.
The glitch means motorists are being sent along an unclassified track on the edge of a sheer cliff edge.
Cars, minibuses and even large trucks have taken the steep, twisty road used by holidaymakers, walkers and sightseers travelling from Swaledale to Wensleydale in North Yorkshire.
But it is not used by commuters and is
described by locals as "just about passable with a 4X4".
The lane starts off as a Tarmac road but turns into a gravel track, which runs past Steven Porter's farm.
He said: "It's only a matter of time before someone goes over the edge - and it's a 100ft drop. They get so far up and then there's a bad S-bend and they try to come back down. Some of them end up on three wheels because there's no barrier, just some big stones.
"A minibus got stuck two or three weeks ago after the satellite navigation had told them to go up there. Another fellow in a car got stuck a few days ago."
Harold Brown, chairman of the local Grinton Parish Council, said: "The road's just about passable with a 4X4 if you know what you're doing, but the sat-nav systems are sending drivers up it anyway. This modern technology is not all it's cracked up to be."
A spokesman for the North Yorkshire County Council reportedly said: "We will look at the signing issue and any appropriate action that needs to be taken will be taken."
A spokesman for Trafficmaster, which makes one satellite navigation system, said: "We try to make sure our system doesn't send people down smaller routes."
source
United Kingdom -- Drivers following the instructions of their satellite navigation systems to a village called Crackpot are being directed to the top of a 100ft cliff, it was reported.
The glitch means motorists are being sent along an unclassified track on the edge of a sheer cliff edge.
Cars, minibuses and even large trucks have taken the steep, twisty road used by holidaymakers, walkers and sightseers travelling from Swaledale to Wensleydale in North Yorkshire.
But it is not used by commuters and is
described by locals as "just about passable with a 4X4".
The lane starts off as a Tarmac road but turns into a gravel track, which runs past Steven Porter's farm.
He said: "It's only a matter of time before someone goes over the edge - and it's a 100ft drop. They get so far up and then there's a bad S-bend and they try to come back down. Some of them end up on three wheels because there's no barrier, just some big stones.
"A minibus got stuck two or three weeks ago after the satellite navigation had told them to go up there. Another fellow in a car got stuck a few days ago."
Harold Brown, chairman of the local Grinton Parish Council, said: "The road's just about passable with a 4X4 if you know what you're doing, but the sat-nav systems are sending drivers up it anyway. This modern technology is not all it's cracked up to be."
A spokesman for the North Yorkshire County Council reportedly said: "We will look at the signing issue and any appropriate action that needs to be taken will be taken."
A spokesman for Trafficmaster, which makes one satellite navigation system, said: "We try to make sure our system doesn't send people down smaller routes."
source