back to article Driver follows satnav to his doom

A Senegalese man drove by mistake into a Spanish reservoir on Saturday evening - and drowned. His passenger survived. Local authorities say the 37 year-old followed directions from his GPS on to an old unlit road that submerged into La Serena reservoir in Western Spain. By the time he realised his satnav error it was too late …

COMMENTS

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  1. Studley
    Coat

    "You have reached your (final) destination."

    The passenger got out? Presumably the driver was still waiting to hear the "in 200 yards, swim for your life" message.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Does this qualify...

    ...for a Darwin Award?

  3. tony72
    Stop

    Darwin award?

    Not spectacular enough really, although stupid enough, to be a Darwin Award contender. I mean, how on earth do you get to be stupid enough to drive into a lake just because your satnav says that's the way to go? Was he not actually looking out of the windscreen at where he was going? Headlights not working? Or did he just think it was an unusually large puddle? I guess we'll never know.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!

    NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

    FUCKING NO!!!!!

    IF YOU ARE SO FUCKING STUPID YOU DRIVE ALONG WITHOUT LOOKING OUT THE GLASSY BITS IN YOUR FUXXING CAR, YOU ARE A COMPLETE DIV OF THE HIGHEST FUXXING ORDER! OKAY?!?

    The satnav is a tool and until the day it is connected to the car's wheel and accelerator with no manual override, there is no excuse for blaming the satnav to getting you into trouble!

    *breathe* *breathe* * Think calm thoughts.....

    1. The Cube

      Erm, no

      The satnav is not the tool in this story, I believe you'll find that the tool was behind the steering wheel and is now rather soggy in a morgue.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    SELECT random_title()

    An idiot and his life are easily parted.

  6. jake Silver badge

    Idiots who can't drive ...

    ... can't drive.

    I mean, how hard is it? "Gee, look, the road is going into a lake[1] ... maybe I better stop and rethink my route a trifle." The Darwin Awards are going to be full of Nintendo Generation graduates for years to come, methinks.

    [1] Up a footpath & over a cliff in the wilds of Yorkshire, or wherever.

  7. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    Darwin award?

    We can automate silly deaths now!! PROGRESS!!

  8. Jamie Kitson

    hmmm

    I wonder if Jimi Heselden was using satnav.

  9. Ian McNee
    WTF?

    Darwin Award or RoTM?

    Such dilemmas... *sigh*

    1. Kurt Cypher
      Terminator

      Re: Darwin Award or RoTM?

      I'd say a little of both. The driver was stupid enough to be in the running for a Darwin Award by blindly following the machine's directions, and the machine recognized and took advantage of the aforementioned stupidity.

  10. Patrick Weber
    FAIL

    Is this the road? Still on Google Maps as well!

    http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Electricidad+la+Serena+S.L.,+Villanueva+de+la+Serena,+Spain&sll=38.711233,-4.779053&sspn=5.520065,8.041992&ie=UTF8&hq=electricidad+la+serena+sl&hnear=Villanueva+de+la+Serena,+Badajoz,+Extremadura,+Spain&ll=38.899467,-5.19413&spn=0.010754,0.015707&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A

    Cheers TeleAltas !

  11. Anonymous John
    FAIL

    Some people can do stupid without a Sat Nav.

    "Car driven onto Esher railway station platform".

    http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2079573_car_driven_onto_esher_railway_station_platform

  12. Ian Ferguson
    Thumb Down

    To be fair

    You don't normally expect a road to suddenly end in a reservoir, and if you have reason to believe it's a main road, you might be going along at a fair pace.

    I would suggest it's more a failure of signposting & barriers on the part of the local authority, than a Darwin-award-style brain failure. After all, if he was just lost, and wasn't using satnav, but still drove into the reservoir, would you still call him stupid?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      I certainly would!

      No I am not perfect, but when use my SatNav and it takes me down some pokey little single-track road in the back-of-the-beyond, I slow right down and I start paying even more attention to what's happening outside as a bloody great cow, tractor or hairy monster might suddenly appear out of nowhere.

      Driving should be appropriate to the conditions, that's what a lot of people forget. They simply drive the same in 70 mph motorway, as they would a 30mph zone, as they would a single-track road up a Welsh mountain.

      Two key factors on your test are observation and awareness. "Sorry I drove into the back of the car in front, I was too busy looking at my map book/cd player/sat nav.". Driving without due care and attention.

  13. GeorgeTuk
    Stop

    OK to counter all the "Stupid" arguments...

    1) Guessing being Senaglese his Spanish wasn't first rate to maybe not his first language.

    2) La Serena is in a rocky hill range, so I think the imaginations of just driving into a lake might be slightly off.

    Still agree with most posters though, use your MK1 eyeball, still the best piece of kit out there.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Should have used Google maps

    Because that shows "ctra de cabeza del buey a puebla" going straight across the reservoir as well.

  15. Keris
    FAIL

    Think of it as evolution in action

    Like all the other idiots who follow what the SatNav says blindly (hundreds of miles in the wrong direction, up goat paths, into fields, etc.).

    One of the best peices of advice I heard on the BBC's 'Today' radio programme a few years ago: "Treat it like a wife". OK, perhaps not in all respects, but treat its suggestions like those from any other navigator in the car. Sometimes it will say 'right' instead of 'left', it may miss roads or invent ones which don't exist (mine sometimes thinks that a roundabout exit either isn't a 'real' one or treats a driveway as a road), or it will warn too late about a turning (particularly when there are several together), etc. And the maps are by definition out of date, at least some information will be months if not years old.

    "Think for yourseld, schmuck!"

  16. Old Tom
    Alert

    Google too

    Take a look at the area on Google maps; ask it to plan you a journey; don't forget to take your boat...

    http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Capilla,+Spain&sll=36.597889,11.381836&sspn=18.100069,43.286133&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Capilla,+Badajoz,+Extremadura,+Spain&ll=38.842348,-5.092421&spn=0.017181,0.058622&t=h&z=15

  17. westlake
    Pint

    The rest of the story

    The source of this story has photographs:

    http://www.lacronicabadajoz.com/noticias/noticia.asp?pkid=57548

    (Un hombre fallece tras hundirse su coche en la presa de La Serena/A man died after his car sank in the dam of La Serena.)

    The road glides gently into the water with no visible signs or barriers.

    The area is featureless swampland.

    The time about 12 Midnight.

    The body was found eight meters from shore and three deep.

    The translation does not make this clear, but it is possible the road still sees some use when the water level is lower.

    Accidents like these have never been uncommon around canals, docks, boat ramps and so on.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Autumn of his years?

    Well, it *is* "Blackberrying" time in Europe about now - isn't it?

  19. YumDogfood

    Condolences

    The real moral is LEARN TO SWIM.

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