UK blames sat navs for damaging 2,000 bridges per year

We've already seen plenty of evidence of the potential damage that sat navs can cause, but the UK's Network Rail has now put a figure on at least some of it, saying that the devices are responsible for damaging some 2,000 bridges per year and causing 5,000 hours of delays. That, thankfully, is not from the satellites falling from the sky, but rather from over drivers relying a little too heavily on GPS units (in particular those driving trucks too large for the bridges), a problem apparently so bad that some places in the UK have taken to putting up signs warning of the dangers. That's apparently not quite enough to solve the problem, however, and now , in addition to warning people to use a little common sense, Network Rail is also reportedly attempting to map all of the UK's low bridges and level crossings so that the information can be added to GPS software.

[Thanks, Charles H]

[Wwhat Posted Feb 14th 2008 7:35AM]

it's not that tiny really, plus it has many windy and weird and hundreds of years old roads and bridges unlike the simple layout of the american roadsystem.
As for the funny looking sign, that has been mocked in so many newsstories that most people know it from that by now, and indeed, if you are the type that drives his car/truck stuck in a tunnel or in the river because GPS nav tells you then clearly you are the least likely one to understand that sign, which most highly intelligent people already would have trouble figuring out I imagine, and if that's the quality of sign-design they use on other warnings too then it's no wonder that people don't get it and drive too high/heavy/wide things on too high/light/narrow bridges and roads and tunnels.