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Sat Nav sends Crackpot drivers off a cliff
Thu, 06 Apr 2006
Drivers using satellite navigation systems heading through the Yorkshire hamlet of Crackpot have been taken to the edge of a cliff.
The navigation system has been sending drivers up a narrow steep track bounded on one side by a 30-metre drop, which is only usually passable in a 4x4, as they drive from Swaledale to Wensleydale.
Motorists have been putting their faith in technology, ignoring warning signs, a barred gate and the stone and gravel surface, while local farmers have been called out to rescue cars, minibuses and delivery vans.
Local farmer Carol Porter said: "When they get grounded on the small boulders, we're having to go up there in the tractor and pull them out."
Her husband Steven Porter added: "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."
Locals first noted increased use of the road after Christmas when many drivers received them as presents.
Commercial vehicle and van drivers also often use such systems as a useful tool to get to the right place, however drivers are being warned to use their common sense as well as technology.
The local council for Crackpot is now considering erecting new signs to warn drivers.
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