5 Humiliating GPS Disasters

By: Justine Goodman

The stupidity is endless when it comes to people blindly accepting the instructions provided by their GPS devices. Here's what happens when you let Garmin and TomTom run the show.

Woman Drives 900 Miles Instead of 90 Miles

Did you hear the one about the 61-year-old Belgian woman who drove more than 900 miles over the course of two days, when her intended destination (the train station in Brussels) was only 93 miles away? Apparently her GPS device told her to keep going, so she did. Ultimately, she drove all the way to Croatia. She was quoted as saying, "I was distracted, so I kept driving. I saw all kinds of traffic signs, first in French, then German and finally in Croatian, but I kept driving... Suddenly I appeared in Zagreb and I realized I wasn't in Belgium anymore." We're pretty sure that "distracted" is when you put the milk in the cupboard instead of the fridge; losing two days is called "Alzheimer's."

Japanese Tourists Drive into the Pacific

You know how sometimes your GPS tells you drive into the ocean, and you do it? No? Well, tell that to the three Japanese tourists who were vacationing in Australia when their GPS device directed them straight into the sea. They proceeded to drive 50 feet offshore before they realized they were fucking morons.

Man Drives onto Train Tracks

Apparently one navigation system's idea of a hilarious joke was telling the driver to take shortcuts that involve possible collisions with oncoming trains. That's what happened to motorist Satlegh Mohammadi, who drove 20 feet along the train tracks before he realized his error. Ultimately, it turned out that Mohammadi was driving under the influence, so he didn't just take his GPS device's crappy instructions at face value, but rather at shitfaced value.

Woman Drives $100K Mercedes into River

Back in 2007, a 28-year-old British woman who was following GPS directions plunged her Mercedes SL500 into Leicestershire's River Sence - rather ironic, given that her spectacular display of idiocy indicates that she had no sense. The "victim" was rescued by an onlooker who had witnessed the incident, but it took authorities a whole week to dredge up the car, which arguably didn't deserve to drown as much as its operator.

Couple Drives into a Church

In 2011, an elderly British couple traveling through Germany careened into the side of a church, totaling their vehicle and inflicting some $20K-worth of damage to the building, after their navigation system told them to turn right - even though there was no road to turn on. Ugh. This story just reinforces a point we've been trying to make for ages: The only thing worse than GPS directions are old people.

Source : http://www.maxim.com