Totally Reliant on Your GPS? Take a Map. It Could Save Your Life
Ever been taken down the wrong road by your GPS? For most, finding the right road is just a matter of getting out a map or asking someone for the right directions. But for some families, relying on their GPS, has led to death.
GPS devices are fallible; they’re made so by satellite communication errors and outdated or inaccurate maps. Even when maps are current, some mapping and navigation information doesn’t take into account road types. The road that may look like the shortest distance between Point A and Point B might actually be unpaved, desolate and dangerous according to How Stuff Works.
GPS signals are weak and can easily be outpunched by poorly-controlled signals from television towers, devices such as laptops and MP3 players, or even mobile satellite services.
DEATH BY GPS
A GPS device led a convoy of tourists astray in southern Utah; finally stranding them on the edge of a sheer cliff according to CBS News. With little food or water, the group of 10 children and 16 adults from California had to spend a night in their cars deep inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Last January, a California man mistakenly drove onto commuter railroad tracks north of New York City, and ditched his car just before it was destroyed by an oncoming train.
A woman with her six-year-old son, following her GPS, turned down the wrong road in Death Valley National Park, became stuck and ran out of water. Her son died of dehydration before they were discovered by a ranger. “Death by GPS” is what Charlie Callagan, wilderness coordinator for Death Valley National Park, called it in a recent Sacramento Bee article. To read more, see the Sacramento Bee.
(Photos: hdandylion, chriggy1)
Posted on 28. Mar, 2011 by Patricia in Tech for Moms
3 Responses to “Totally Reliant on Your GPS? Take a Map. It Could Save Your Life”
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Thank you very much for sharing. What happened on your trip is a helpful warning to all of us.
Nice article. I will link it to my blog. GPS receiver failure can sometimes be user error. However I can tell you firsthand sometimes it is the GPS receiver at fault. I live in Montana and have seen receivers not be able to pick up the signal here. My son ended up being the only one with a compass on a trip this past summer. The rest had GPS receivers and could not get a signal. Not a good thing when you are out in the wilderness. ALWAYS take a map and compass. Know how to use them. They never have glitches.
I’m new to the area where I live in North Carolina. On my way home last night from Wilmington (I live in Sanford), I used my GPS. I should have cut through Fayetteville, which I somewhat know, but I trusted my GPS. It had me taking back country roads. The speed limit on the roads was anywhere between 45-55 MPH. The one road where I was cruising down at about 54 MPH went from being paved to dropping off to a dirt road and then becoming woods. I went barreling off the paved section of the road, slammed on the breaks, and came to a stop before I drove into the woods. It scared the heck out of me! It really shook me up. This particular GPS has misled me before; once in Nevada and, again, in Atlanta, GA. I am getting rid of this GPS! Three times is once too many…and I fear one of these days my luck will run out using this particular GPS.