14 DAY TRIAL // If you're one of the drivers that heavily rely on the brainless electronic map called GPS, you should reconsider your options, because the little devil can have you killed. This was the case of an American bus driver who paid too much attention to the device and forgot about common sense.
Although the device was set to bus-driving mode, it indicated the driver a route through a footpath bridge that was not able to provide enough clearance for the bus. The 4-meter bus was forced under the three-meter bridge and had its roof sheared off.
There were no human victims in the accident, and the driver kept blaming on the global positioning device, although the warning signs indicated the maximum clearance under the bridge as three meters. The bus was carrying the Garfield High School girls softball team and 21 students along with coaches.
"We haven't really had serious problems with anything, but here it's presented a problem that we didn't consider," Steve Abegg, president of Journey Lines in Lynnwood said of the GPS unit. "We just thought it would be a safe route because, why else would they have a selection for a bus?"
Some of the existing GPS units support intelligent routing for larger vehicles in respects of general information, such as routes that are closed to buses, instead of human-collected data (bridge heights or maximum clearance levels in tunnels).
The GPS unit installed aboard was manufactured by Garmin, and was loaded with maps supplied by an independent company. "The bigger comment here is that drivers always need to obey all the rules of the road at all times," said Garmin spokesman Ted Gartner. "Stoplights aren't in our databases, either, but you're still expected to stop for stoplights."
According to the local authorities, the driver was cited for hitting a low-clearance structure, but got away with a symbolic fine of only $154.