Sat nav driver's car hit by train

[+stora]

A 20-year-old woman's car was wrecked by a train after she followed her sat nav system onto a railway track. Paula Ceely, was driving her Renault Clio from Redditch, Worcester, to see her boyfriend in Carmarthenshire on a trip she was making for the first time.

 

She was trying to cross the line in the dark when she heard a train horn, realised she was on the track, and the train hit the car, sending it spinning.

 

Transport police said drivers must take care with satellite navigation.

 

 

more here.....

 

What I don't understand is why the light was green when a train was due.

[+Bear and Ragged]

"So I opened the gate, drove forward, closed the gate behind me and then went to go and open the gate in front of me."

 

A couple of minutes to close one gate and open the other... Train is moving at ?? MPH,

 

The light may well have been green when she started to open the gate.

 

Is there not a notice to say "Open both gates"

 

My Tomtom has train lines marked as such. Very handy when trying to decide if its a railway bridge or a canal bridge.

 

Edited May 11, 2007 by KandG

[+kewfriend]

The train's SatNav was probably defective and it was following the wrong railway tracks.

[+kennamatic]

Surely she would have seen the railtracks sunk into the road surface with her car headlights? Then again, perhaps she thought it was a cattle grid?

 

I suspect that on the run up to it there were also road signs to say she was approaching a level crossing.

 

I don't know, maybe I'm just a grumpy old robot and am doing her a disservice.

[+Team Sieni]

This hasn't really got anything at all to do with Sat Nav. The same thing could have happened if she was following directions given to her by a passer by. It's not like the sat nav lured her off the road onto an inappropriate route. It was a proper crossing on a proper road.

 

The problem is either the crossing was dangerous because insufficient information was provided on how to operate it, or the information was insufficiently prominent or the driver was too unobservant to see them or too dim to follow them.

[+studlyone]

This hasn't really got anything at all to do with Sat Nav. The same thing could have happened if she was following directions given to her by a passer by. It's not like the sat nav lured her off the road onto an inappropriate route. It was a proper crossing on a proper road.

 

The problem is either the crossing was dangerous because insufficient information was provided on how to operate it, or the information was insufficiently prominent or the driver was too unobservant to see them or too dim to follow them.

Couldn't have put that better myself. It looks like another bout of stanav bashing by the media. I think that without the satnav even being there she would have done the same thing - maybe it was an incorrectly marked crossing or she was just not paying attention.

[Moss Trooper]

This hasn't really got anything at all to do with Sat Nav. The same thing could have happened if she was following directions given to her by a passer by. It's not like the sat nav lured her off the road onto an inappropriate route. It was a proper crossing on a proper road.

 

The problem is either the crossing was dangerous because insufficient information was provided on how to operate it, or the information was insufficiently prominent or the driver was too unobservant to see them or too dim to follow them.

Couldn't have put that better myself. It looks like another bout of stanav bashing by the media. I think that without the satnav even being there she would have done the same thing - maybe it was an incorrectly marked crossing or she was just not paying attention.

 

Said it before and will say it again.. Sat Nav is an AID to navigation, to be used with caution.

 

Othere wise I would have probably gone down many a one way street the wrong way.

 

Moss T

[NickPick]

This hasn't really got anything at all to do with Sat Nav. The same thing could have happened if she was following directions given to her by a passer by. It's not like the sat nav lured her off the road onto an inappropriate route. It was a proper crossing on a proper road.

 

The problem is either the crossing was dangerous because insufficient information was provided on how to operate it, or the information was insufficiently prominent or the driver was too unobservant to see them or too dim to follow them.

Couldn't have put that better myself. It looks like another bout of stanav bashing by the media. I think that without the satnav even being there she would have done the same thing - maybe it was an incorrectly marked crossing or she was just not paying attention.

 

I was going to put it:

 

Yet another story of someone blaming their sat nav for the fact that they don't know how to drive properly.

[+kbootb]

The article also says she was totally reliant on her satnav. Not too bright... GPS units have been known to fail.

 

'Led me directly into the path of a speeding train' no it didn't, it led her to a level crossing, she put her car in the path of the train.

 

'there was a little sign saying, if the light is green, open the gates and drive through' perhaps the sign should have said something about it being a level crossing.. open both gates, drive right across the lines, come back close gates. The green light is in question, but if she opned the gate, drove through and then shut the gate and returned, that might be long enough for the light to go to red with the car still in the way. Either the timing of the light needs to be chaged, or the procedure made clearer.

 

Can't see much to blame the satnav for here.

 

Rather like the local story here of a driver that blamed the satnav for the fact that they drove straight out onto a roundabout without stopping as they were just following the instructions, 'enter roundabout and take 2nd exit'. They weren't actually saying that the SatNav had omitted to tell them to look out for traffic, but the satnav had made them lazy and lulled them into a false sense of security.

[+chizu]

 

Rather like the local story here of a driver that blamed the satnav for the fact that they drove straight out onto a roundabout without stopping as they were just following the instructions, 'enter roundabout and take 2nd exit'. They weren't actually saying that the SatNav had omitted to tell them to look out for traffic, but the satnav had made them lazy and lulled them into a false sense of security.

 

makes me wonder how long until someone in the US tries to sue Tom Tom / Garmin for not warning them about oncoming traffic/juggernauts etc

[+scottpa100]

On the same news website, I note that the paper monitor (where the Beeb check out what the newspapers are doing) also refer to the plight of this young lady on the level crossing. They note that the Daily Mail goes all out saying Sat Nav, nasty modern gadget type thing. The Daily Telegraph observes that she has failed to notice the signs.

 

Ho hum... some people should just not be allowed on the roads!

[alistair_uk]

Okay, let me summerise...

 

She drives to a gate following the GPS, open it, drives the car on to a level crossing, closes the gate, realises she is on a crossing, the car is hit by a train, and she blames the sat nav because it did not tell her it was a level crossing.

 

The real frightening thing is that she is a second year university student, meaning that she has passed the first year. It could prevent me from Geocaching, but, I think we should make it illegal for stupid people to use GPS receivers. :-)

[+Mr'D]

She drives to a gate following the GPS, open it, drives the car on to a level crossing, closes the gate, realises she is on a crossing, the car is hit by a train, and she blames the sat nav because it did not tell her it was a level crossing.

That's how I read it too! People will blame anything for lack of common sense.

Jon

[+walkergeoff and wife]

She drives to a gate following the GPS, open it, drives the car on to a level crossing, closes the gate, realises she is on a crossing, the car is hit by a train, and she blames the sat nav because it did not tell her it was a level crossing.

That's how I read it too! People will blame anything for lack of common sense.

Jon

Your motto at the bottom is proved to absolutely accurate!

[+purple_pineapple]

a former student at my work bought herself a new sat nav and on on the first day of using it, nearly ran someone over at a zebra crossing cos she was following the sat nav too keenly - it hadn't told her to stop for any potential pedestrians, so she very nearly didn't!

 

As has been said, the first requirement for using a satnav is an ability to drive!

[The Birches Head Hunters]

Perhaps as part of their driving examination, new drivers should be assessed on their ability to use a satnav without being distracted.

 

Or, should all drivers sit an IQ test?

 

Or, perhaps the law banning the use of mobile phones whilst driving should be expanded to include satnavs and other annoying electronic gadgets?

[fraggle69]

Good job the young lady wasn't using a handheld GPSr, she may well have found herself DEAD at the bottom of some cliff./

[nobby.nobbs]

it's people like that who need "contains hot liquid" on the side of coffee cups. need i say more?

[+gingerbreadmen]

I'm just amazed that nobody has fallen for the old one and asked if she is blonde? Oh dadgum, I just did...

[+Haggis Hunter]

The real frightening thing is that she is a second year university student, meaning that she has passed the first year. It could prevent me from Geocaching, but, I think we should make it illegal for stupid people to use GPS receivers. :-)

Alistair I know you are a student, and no offence is meant. Please take it from someone that works with students day and night, and has seen so many stupid things done by them, that second year means nothing.

 

I think the queue for the common sense implant is just before the queue for graduation.

 

Nothing that a student does surprises me any more! Sad thing is, is that it is idiots like her that blame others for their mistakes, that tar the good students out there.

 

I wonder if she had managed to de-rail the train, if her excuse of the sat nav giving her the wrong information would stand up in court??

[+jerryo]

I was amused yesterday when I tried a French voice for my Tom Tom. Silly girl told me to go the wrong way around a roundabout. Straight up! Well, anti-clockwise anyway.

[alistair_uk]

Someone has pointed me to another writ up in the Western Telegraph,. The interesting bit is the image of the crossing below...

 

Update: Linking to such a large image caused a few problems on the browser so the link is... http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/_images/...429125.full.jpg

Edited May 12, 2007 by alistair_uk

[+studlyone]

Definitely not enough signs on that level crossing - it's totally understandable how she managed to miss them all and not realise she was parking her car in the path of a train.

 

One word ------ Muppet (or should it be muggle)

 

Edited - I really must learn to spell one of these days

Edited May 13, 2007 by studlyone

[+maw, paw + the piglets]

Read this on another forum which was discussing the sanity of some folk who use Sat Nav.

 

"Our neighbour went to the crematorium to attend the funeral of a friend, Joyce being ever careful decided to take her sat nav out of the car in case it got pinched and just as they took their seats all that could be heard from Joyce's handbag was "You have arrived at your final destination"

True but a tad embarrassing. "

[+gingerbreadmen]

Read this on another forum which was discussing the sanity of some folk who use Sat Nav.

 

"Our neighbour went to the crematorium to attend the funeral of a friend, Joyce being ever careful decided to take her sat nav out of the car in case it got pinched and just as they took their seats all that could be heard from Joyce's handbag was "You have arrived at your final destination"

True but a tad embarrassing. "

 

[alistair_uk]

Someone has tracked down her web site http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=13726231, just in case you were interested.

[+Colourbox]

A second-year student at Birmingham University, she had borrowed the sat nav from her boyfriend

I wonder if her boyfriend got his SatNav back!

[+Saddlesore1000]

So she's a uni student. Just goes to show this insane govt target of 50% of young people going to uni is a complete waste of time. Anyone who stops their car on the tracks has something missing between their ears.