lost

THis is for all thos riders like me that get lost.
Satellite navigation systems have revolutionised driving over the past decade or so, saving us time and fuel - and a whole lot of arguments with backseat drivers and map-readers too! But sometimes things can go wrong. Very wrong. Here are some of the worst sat-nav mishaps from around the globe - and some advice on how you can avoid them.



Cars and water don't mix, as a driver in Glubczyce, Poland, found out. He doggedly followed the instructions of his sat-nav - ignoring the road signs telling him that the road ahead was closed - and drove straight into the middle of a reservoir. Fortunately the man and his passengers clambered onto the roof of the car and were rescued by the emergency services.


In 2008, Syrian lorry driver Necdet Bakimci found himself stranded on a nature reserve in Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire. He was 1,600 miles from his intended destination: Gibraltar, on the southern tip of Spain. Confusingly, his sat-nav system listed Gibraltar as being in the UK (because it's a colonial outpost). Confronted with a choice of two Gibraltars, both seemingly in the British Isles, Bakimci and his cargo of luxury cars took a 3,200 mile detour.


Want to move up in the world? Then buy a car at auction. When police sold the Duchess of York's Jaguar, the lucky buyer got more than he bargained for. The car's in-built sat-nav system was programmed with the address shared by the Duchess and her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, along with locations of some of the favourite haunts of Britain's aristocracy.


Villagers in Exton, in southern England, were so used to trucks getting stuck down a two-metre wide country lane that the council put up signs telling drivers to ignore their sat-navs and take a different route. Dozy HGV drivers who relied on their GPS devices had to reverse half a mile, causing damage to hedges and fences, in order to turn around.


Police in Victoria, Australia have urged drivers not to discard their old-fashioned maps. An increasing number of motorists have been stranded after relying on their GPS systems, getting taken on routes that are only accessible to four-wheel drive vehicles. Many parts of Australia do not have up-to-date digital mapping and sat-nav companies have been relying on data that can be up to ten years out of date.


Zhou Xia and Zhao Na Na's crime spree came to an abrupt end when they were stopped by police in Doncaster, Yorkshire. They were found carrying thousands of Euros and a number of stolen credit cards. But the most damning evidence was the sat-nav device, programmed with the addresses of all the Post Offices that they had defrauded.


State troopers in Vermont, USA have called for GPS users to exercise common sense after a series of inattentive drivers found themselves following snowmobile trails. One soldier from Fort Drum, NY, drove so deeply onto a trail that police had to use a snow tractor to drag him to safety.


A hospital patient on a ward transfer got taken on an eight-hour magical mystery tour, thanks to bungling London ambulance drivers. Blindly trusting their sat-nav device, the ambulance crew took the patient to a hospital on the outskirts of Manchester, 200 miles away, when they were supposed to travel a mere 12 miles to Brentwood, Essex.


Doncaster man Robert Jones had the shock of his life when he found his BMW 5-series teetering on the edge of a steep drop. Following instructions from his sat-nav, the professional driver found himself on a narrow pedestrian lane in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. The 43-year old is due to appear in court on a charge of driving without due care and attention.


Redditch woman Paula Ceely cheated death en route to her boyfriend's house in Wales. Her sat-nav system took her to a large metal gate. Certain that this was the correct route, she opened the gate and, moments later, found herself in the path of a railway train. She jumped out of the way as the train smashed into her Renault Clio and carried it down the track. 'I'll never use a sat-nav again,' she told the Daily Telegraph.