[OSM-talk] Sat nav driver's car hit by train

[Richard Fairhurst]

Robert T Wyatt wrote:

> It was pretty absent-minded at least; that is, ignoring the posted
> signs. But it might have been difficult to tell with no lighting, in a
> downpour, that she was on the tracks. She probably was ignoring the
> directional and cautionary signs since that's not how she was
> navigating (in her thinking) and on such a narrow road, it may have
> been all she could do to keep it between the ditches.

<way off-topic>

A big problem IMO is that, in Britain, most people's driving  
experience is now very, very narrow in scope. Driving tests are taken  
in city or town centres - even in Rutland, the very rural county where  
I grew up, the test had to be taken in the nearby towns of Melton and  
Stamford, and the lessons were oriented accordingly. There's then  
sometimes a bit of supplementary training on a motorway or a  
motorway-like road.

But rural driving on winding, single-carriageway roads, sometimes with  
dodgy surfaces and - as in this case - unexpected obstructions, is  
very different. For a young driver from Bromsgrove, as in this case,  
it's entirely outside their experience.

Where the satnav comes in, I think, is that it gives her the false  
assurance that "it's ok to go down this road".

</way off-topic>

Richard