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Clueless Driver Follows GPS Directions Onto Train Tracks

Just in time for the northbound express
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 4, 2008 10:05 AM CST
Clueless Driver Follows GPS Directions Onto Train Tracks
An early GPS unit. A 32-year-old man has received a summons for obstructing a railroad crossing after he followed GPS directions onto railroad tracks.   (KRT Photos)

When the GPS in his rental car told him to turn right as was driving over a railroad crossing, a New York area driver obediently followed directions—right onto the tracks. The car got stuck and he abandoned it minutes before a train slammed into it. No one was hurt, but the driver will be billed for the damages.

The incident delayed hundreds of passenger for hours. "He tried to stop the train by waving his arms, which apparently was not totally effective," said a railroad spokesman. The man, a computer technician, was unfamiliar with the area and was relying on his GPS.  "One computer brain listening to another," chuckled the spokesman. (More GPS stories.)

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