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Man Drinks, Drives the Wrong Way on High-Speed Road, Hits 4 Vehicles, Blames Waze

Wrong-way drivers are becoming a major concern these days, and despite tech companies out there investing big in warnings supposed to reduce the likelihood of people going in the opposite direction, such incidents continue to happen.
Waze navigation at work 10 photos
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Andrew Beavers, a 55-year-old driver from England, ended up going the wrong way on the A38 truck road near Buckfastleigh and hit not one, not two, but four other vehicles.

It goes without saying the collision with an oncoming vehicle on a high-speed road is totally shocking, and the local media reports that one of the drivers involved in the incident wasn’t even sure if he was dead or alive after 24 hours.

As if ending up the wrong way wasn’t enough, it looks like Beavers, the driver that caused the whole thing, actually had a drink early in the day.

He then decided it’d be a good idea to take his Land Rover Freelander for a drive, eventually causing the massive accident described above. Beavers told the witnesses that he was actually using Waze, and this is why he was going in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, nobody experienced life-threatening injuries, but the fact that someone who decided to drink and drive ended up going in the wrong way and then blamed a navigation app for the whole thing is a major issue anyway.

Beavers appeared in court earlier this month and admitted dangerous driving and driving after drinking. His lawyer explained the man was stressed due to an incident that had happened the evening before. He had a glass of wine for the first time in almost nine years, as Beavers had a liver transplant in 2014.

The driver avoided prison (the judge explained the man didn’t deliberately decide to go on the wrong way, as he was just following the instructions of the navigation app), but on the other hand, he received an eight-month suspended sentence and is no longer allowed to drive a car for 18 months.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
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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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