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Camper Driver Hits Bridge Because the Navigation App Told Him They’d Fit

While it’s pretty clear that navigation solutions, be they stand-alone GPS units or mobile apps such as Google Maps, Waze, or Apple Maps, shouldn’t be taken for granted, more and more people around the world end up learning this the hard way.
The camper got stuck under the bridge 6 photos
Photo: John Elworthy/Cambs Times
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The latest to do it is the driver of a camper traveling with his wife and two children close to Cambridgeshire in England. Unfortunately, the man just decided it’d be a good idea just to ignore the street signs and trust what his navigation app was saying, and boy, this was a bad idea.

The camper ended up hitting the Sonea rail bridge simply because the vehicle didn’t fit. It eventually got stuck under the bridge, most likely because the navigation app he used was configured to provide routing for passenger cars and not for large vehicles.

If we’d take a guess, there’s a chance the man was using Google Maps, one of the most popular navigation apps out there. Google Maps, however, has one major shortcoming: it only supports passenger cars, as it lacks special navigation modes for larger vehicles, such as campers and trucks.

Luckily, neither the couple nor their kids got hurt, though they certainly learned an important lesson: never ignore the street signs and, equally important, never take for granted everything the sat-nav tells you.

The good news is the authorities in the region are now willing to tackle the problem more efficiently by installing more preventive measures supposed to help drivers of large vehicles figure they wouldn’t fit under the bridge. And while this is a welcome initiative, it goes without saying it won’t change anything unless drivers take their eyes off the navigation apps and look at the signs of the streets.

Until then, if you’re driving a camper or a truck, just make sure you use a proper navigation app, such as the ones provided by Sygic.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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