SATELLITE navigation systems have become so prone to blunders that they are in danger of steering into a new road sign.

 

Government ministers are planning to introduce a “no lorries” warning sign to deter heavy goods drivers from being directed down entirely unsuitable short cuts by sat nav systems. The signs, whose final designs will be drawn up by the Department for Transport, will show a lorry with a red line through it without any words. “The design will, we hope, be easily understood by drivers with a weak grasp of English,” said a source at the ministry.

 

A government consultation on sat nav, to be published within weeks, has concluded that more must be done to prevent “inappropriate routing”. The government accepts that sat nav is a valuable tool but is concerned that some drivers are overly reliant on it and are abandoning common sense.

 

Ministers have held private meetings with sat nav providers to encourage them to develop “truck-friendly” systems that include information about roads. They are also considering a Kitemark to encourage the purchase of systems with accurate local information suited to the size of vehicle.

 

The consultation is also expected to express concern about drivers who become distracted when keying in destinations and have accidents. It is expected to recommend that new lorry drivers are trained in sat nav – and to resort to road signs if in doubt.

 

Mishaps related to sat nav have become commonplace. Earlier this year Lady Kitty Spencer reportedly missed a Chelsea football game because the taxi driver picking her up from Althorp, Northamptonshire, programmed in Stamford Bridge in North Yorkshire rather than the club’s London ground.

 

Last year a Slovenian driver became jammed in a narrow street in the Kent village of Mereworth, near Maidstone, bringing down power lines. The driver is believed to have been using a system designed for cars.

 

Research by Network Rail released earlier this year found lorries had caused £15m of damage in 2007-8 by striking low or narrow bridges after being directed under them by sat navs. The number of incidents had doubled in a decade to 2,000 a year.

 

There were also incidents of cars trying to drive down railway tracks on level crossings after mistaking them for the roads just past the crossing that their sat navs had told them to take.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4087736.ece

What about one of these wonderful signs?

 

or

 

Instead of designing a new sign

 

The sooner lorrys get their own sat-nav maps with unsuitable roads the better

the sooner the lorry drivers use their brains the better. they never used to have that problem. have they lost all their observation skills juts because they have sat nav?

its like the daft people who rely completely on their reversing sensors. They don't pick everything up, you still have to look & use your brain

The problem isn't with the British lorry drivers, but lorrys coming from Europe not understanding the road signs or the roads.

its not the only thing they don't understand, they cause complete mayhem

You try living on a relief road for a dual-carriageway when the dual-carriageway is closed due to accidents, it's horrible

I just get to talk to the people who've just been taken out by an artic changing lanes.

 

must be hellish living near the roads though. there's a road near us which is murder every rush hour

The secret is if you see a lorry at a roundabout, don't go to the side of it.

 

The problem with lorries are on dual-carriagaways when you get one overtaking the other, causing all the traffic to slow down from 75ish to 60