'Crackpot' GPS lures cars to cliff
April 06, 2006 Edition 1
London: Motorists using satellite navigation around the sleepy English village of Crackpot are finding themselves being directed to the top of a 30-metre cliff, residents said yesterday.
Cars, minibuses and even big trucks often take the steep, twisty road used by holidaymakers, walkers and sightseers travelling from Swaledale to Wensleydale in North Yorkshire, in the north of England.
But when their GPS systems lure them on to a rough gravel track - thanks to an apparent programming glitch - they have to reverse perilously close to the edge of the cliff in order to turn around.
"When they get grounded on the small boulders, we're having to go up there in the tractor and pull them out," said Carol Porter, who farms in Crackpot with her husband Steven.
- Sapa-AFP
