By Erik Kirschbaum
Berlin - Motorists who seem to turn off their brain when switching on their car's satellite navigation system have had a number of spectacular crashes in the past year - but occasionally they're right to blame the machine.
Sultry satnav voice
Drivers obeying directions given by a sultry satnav voice have crashed into rivers, construction sites and roadside toilets in Germany, and had similar accidents in Britain.
'People who drive into rivers and blame their satnav are too humiliated' "It's hard to understand how these things can happen," said Maximilian Maurer, spokesperson for the German motoring club Adac.
"It's not as if people are driving in a tank with only a small slit to see out. You'd think they have their own eyes and brains engaged to make decisions and not rely on the satnav. I used to think satnavs were 'idiot-proof', but perhaps not."
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In October a 53-year-old German, obeying his satnav's command "Turn right now!" jerked the wheel over and crashed into a roadside toilet hut 30 metres before the crossing he was meant to take, causing damage to the tune of about R18 000.
A few weeks earlier, an 80-year-old motorist also followed his satnav instead of common sense and ignored a "closed for construction" sign on a Hamburg motorway. He hit a pile of sand at high speed but was not hurt.
"I just thought the navigation system knew a shortcut."
"I just thought the navigation system knew a shortcut," Volker Heinemann was quoted as telling a local newspaper. His car had to be towed away.
In southern England a 29-year-old woman survived unscathed after misreading her satnav and driving the wrong way on a motorway near Portsmouth at nearly 120km per hour, according to a local newspaper.
When stopped after 22km of dodging oncoming traffic, she told police she had only followed the satnav orders.
Cheltenham or Chelmsford?
In early December, the American band Viscount Oliver's Legendary Four Tops missed their own sold-out concert in Cheltenham, southwest England, after following satnav directions to Chelmsford - 220 kilometres to the east.
"Whoever tapped the place into the satnav got it wrong," the band's tour manager Alan Frazer said.
An ambulance driver with a faulty satnav drove more than 600km while transferring a patient from one hospital in Ilford east of London to another in Brentwood - 13km away. He was near Manchester, northern England, before realising his error.
Experts say that as cars get smarter, some people seem to get dumber, and the problem increases as more vehicles are equipped with the devices.
Adac said one in three new cars in Germany has satnav, and retailers say they are among the top Christmas gifts in Germany this year.
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