Signs near Cardiff Airport to warn of sat nav dangers
28.08.07
Official road signs are being introduced on Welsh country roads near Cardiff Airport to warn drivers not to trust their satellite navigation systems. The first of the new signs were installed yesterday to warn motorists of the dangers of blindly following their sat nav systems.
Four of the signs have been put up around the picturesque country village of St Hilary in the Vale of Glamorgan. The move follows problems caused by a spate of lorries getting stuck in a narrow lane in a quiet country village after following the directions given by the devices.
Traffic engineer Mark Simpson designed the new sign, and believes it should be rolled out in other parts of Britain. He said: 'Sat nav can be a wonderful tool for drivers but it does have its dangers. We've had a series of problems with drivers getting into trouble by trusting their sat navs, and we needed to do something about it. I hope my sign should do the trick and I hope it is rolled out and copied all over the country.'
Mr. Simpson, a senior traffic engineer with the Vale of Glamorgan council, was given permission by the Welsh Assembly Government for the 12-month trial of his sat nav warning sign particularly aimed at foreign lorry drivers. It shows a satellite flying above a lorry, with a thick red warning bar going through it.
Drivers - many of them foreign lorry truckers - have been using the narrow bendy lane in St Hilary as a short-cut between the M4 and Cardiff Airport. The sat nav systems were taking them through the village rather on than the main road. Mr. Simpson said: 'More than a dozen heavy trucks have got stuck in lane in the past few months. It has led to huge traffic jams as the lorry drivers try to manoeuvre themselves out of the lane, sometimes taking as long as two hours.'
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