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Man using GPS crashes into train
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by Rob Peters | January 4, 2008 at 12:57 pm
1153 views | 20 Recommendations | 4 comments
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To me this is proof that technology can sometimes just complicate things. In the olden days you'd check a paper map while driving and just rip a door off someone's car, no biggie.
BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y. (AP) — A Global Positioning System can tell a driver a lot of things — but apparently not when a train is coming.A computer consultant driving a rental car drove onto train tracks Wednesday using the instructions his GPS unit gave him. A train was barreling toward him, but he escaped in time and no one was injured.
The driver had turned right, as the system advised, and the car somehow got stuck on the tracks at the crossing. He jumped out and tried to warn the engineer by waving. He got out of the way just before the train slammed into the car at 60 mph, Metro-North railroad spokesman Dan Brucker said Thursday.
The car was pushed more than 100 feet during the fiery crash.
Some 500 train passengers were stranded for more than two hours during the Wednesday evening rush hour. The accident also heavily damaged 250 feet of rail, Brucker said.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 13:32 on January 4th, 2008
Rob Peters, thanks for this. The thing is that you have to combine the technology of GPS with common sense. Common sense would say "look around, you're driving."
at 13:43 on January 4th, 2008
To me this is proof that some people are stupid...
at 13:53 on January 4th, 2008
This guy would probably drive into the ocean if the GPS told him to. But you have to feel for the guy; the GPS' voice probably sounds a lot like his wife's and he knows that if he doesn't do what she tells him to do things are going to be hell for him.
at 23:07 on January 4th, 2008
Rob Peters, Yep, technology for the technologically inept, sort of reminds me of media reports in the 1970s when cruise control on motorhomes had seniors setting it and forgetting it, while they got off their captains chair to make a cup of tea while the motorhome now driveless is now barreling down the interstate at 60 miles an hour, taking out everything in it's path. I do remember as a kid Chrylser commercials with Ricardo Montabaln stating the Luxurious Chrysler Newports ride and feel and now with cruise control lets the driver set it and forget it, Seniors , always a lazy lot pretty much took Ricardo to his word, Excellent and funny story Rob