Driver slapped with £900 fine for following TomTom

Darren

You may recall the case of Robert Jones who blindly followed his SatNav and drove his 5-Series BMW down a dirt track in West Yorkshire, very nearly driving off the edge of a cliff as a result.

Calderdale Magistrates quite rightly levelled all the blame at Mr Jones rather than the SatNav and slapped him with a fine and costs amounting to nearly £900 in total along with six points for his foolishness.

The path is a bridleway and it serves as a timely reminder that SatNav is not an auto-pilot whose directions should be slavishly obeyed but instead it is a guide.

It is not a replacement for good observation and common sense. Sky News have a picture of the car teetering on the cliff edge here.

_________________
Darren Griffin

idf · Lifetime Member Joined: Jul 09, 2006 Posts: 5

Finally a court with some common sense.

A SatNav is no different to a paper map - both can (and do) have errors; both can become out of date. When did people stop taking responsibility for their own actions?

p800 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 19

He must of been crazy to end up there, it is just a path. Just use the co-ordinates below, and follow the path back.

Google earth co-ordinates: 53°42'16.49"N / 2° 6'37.29"W

Jellyroll · Lifetime Member Joined: May 17, 2006 Posts: 57

My wife and I walked up there just after it happened, and we decided that, had we been driving, we'd have kacked our pants long before we reached the point of no return!

JockTamsonsBairn · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:34 am Post subject:

Also mentioned here.
_________________
Jock

TomTom Go 940 LIVE (9.510, Europe v915.5074 on SD & 8.371, WCE v875.3613 on board)

Andy_P · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:59 am Post subject:

And somewhere else too....
I remember spending ages working out where the picture was taken from on Google maps, when they hadn't given much detail about where it was.

FrequentFlyer · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:09 pm Post subject:

The guy does 5000 miles a week (?)...company BMW .... deserves firing.

BigPerk · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:18 pm Post subject:

According to the article he is a car delivery driver. I wonder who the lucky recipient of that nice clean expensive BMW was?
_________________
David
(Navigon 70 Live, Nuvi 360)

Duddy · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 1:20 am Post subject: Dummy driver

hailstorm · Regular Visitor Joined: Jun 26, 2007 Posts: 78

Just looked it up on my 540 and it is indeed marked as a road. I'm surprised that it hasn't been marked off using map share.

To be fair I've done a pretty stupid thing of driving up a footpath while trusting my satnav. To the left of me was a sheer drop and the footpath ahead didn't go anywhere. Took me about half an hour reversing it back out. Was relieved that I managed to get it out without a scratch or plunging the car over the side of the road.

idf · Lifetime Member Joined: Jul 09, 2006 Posts: 5

bbuk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 15, 2006 Posts: 6

Yes, the guy was daft to follow such a track, but...

MESSAGE FOR THE DEFENDANT, MR JONES

...the prosecution lawyer said you had driven down a bridleway. Looking at the local Highway Authority maps shows that --
-- the road is not marked as a bridleway;
-- the road appears on Calderdale maps as part of the 'Local Street Network' but no definition is shown of what this is

My suggestion is that the HA may have this route listed as a legitimate road, not a footpath or a bridleway, and that if they receive funding for maintaining these then they should be available for use.

I know SatNav gets a lot of stick, but I can't help but think that some of the source data from Highways Authorities is flawed...which is understandable considering the miles they have to look after.

Sincerely

M8TJT · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:39 am Post subject:

Hi bbuk, and welcome to the PGPSW forums
Absolutely correct

DeLorean · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:08 am Post subject:

I find commonsense and using the windows a valuable source of additional information whilst driving Very Happy

Perhaps he’d mistakenly asked his sat-nav to plan a route for a Microlight Laughing

I’m sure most have realised that if you follow your sat-nav religiously you wouldn't live very long Shocked

_________________
🔸🔸 Currently using TomTom GO 940 & Locus Map 🔸🔸

technik · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:23 pm Post subject:

You can't expect a BMW driver to have common sense.

	PocketGPS
	Web