Driver Follows GPS Down Boat Launch Ramp

Can't fix Stupid. You should have some common sense.

I guess looking farther down the road than the hood badge would have helped as well... I wonder how fast they were going to boot.

I'm waiting for the lawsuit in 5,4,3,2,1.

Yea, the rental car company and or its insurance company should sue the Darwin Award nominee driver. LOL

At least it was at night.

Has anyone tried to program a route in this area to see if it will take you down the boat launch? I find it difficult to believe that the GPS would have given this water route as the road to travel on.

Best guess is they did not have a route programmed in and were watching the GPS instead of looking through this glass thing on the front of the car above the dashboard.

I still believe the most up-to-date information can be obtained by looking through the windshield, I have never been mislead by using this device!

Didn't somebody drive into a church only a short time ago?
And somebody ended up on a goat trail before that and the car had to be taken out by helicopter.
Smart is skin deep but stupid goes right to the bone.

one of the two passengers get their chance to drive. I hope they don't take the same route!

http://www.northumberlandnews.com/article/74709

If you are worried about this also happening to you while in the Seattle area - under Avoidances, disable the "Ferries" option.

Problem Solved....

I've never driven off a dock at Port Angeles, Tsawassen, or Swartz Bay yet...

Then you, it would seem, are ahead of the game.

So it seems. I think my truck is afraid of water...

Just saw the news clip, it was a "Hertz NeverLost" unit.

Programmed in one of those "Police Hot Spot" POIs into his dad's GPS so he could avoid getting speeding tickets. Every time it goes off, his father says "OK, so where's the cop?"

One of the things I find occasionally frustrating is trying to figure out what the "right" turn is where there are several possibilities close to each other. I end up looking for street signs, typically, because the GPS instructions are not specific enough. If the turn they were supposed to make was really close to the one they made, this would make more sense. It also makes more sense if they do not have much experience with GPSs. They are nice aides but they are not good enough to ensure every driver will get where they are going.

Jim

Forrest Gump said it best about a case like this . If you've seen the movie you know what he said !

That was the first statement that came to mind when I read this topic on POI's main page.

He was probably angry and said..."Ok, I'll follow it." Guess who loses?

Technology cannot interfere with the natural order.
Natural selection trumps our efforts in many cases.

It was a she, not he

Late at night. No local lighting. GPS has you heading down a road and tells you to turn . . . you can't SEE anything except for the fact that there IS a turn, but now you are on the relatively steep ramp and travelling at 10 or more mph - there would be no way to stop.

Had it happened at high noon I'd recommend the driver for a Darwin award. At midnight? I'm not so sure.

we are no longer required to LOOK through our windshield to see where we are going? Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't we still obligated to pay attention to where we are driving, even at night? True, it is harder to see, which makes paying attention even more important (at least I believe so).

I find it very difficult to believe the the Neverlost actually said for them to head down the boat ramp (can't confirm though).

Regardless of what the GPS was doing, there is no excuse for her to not pay attention to where she was driving. I say she needs an award ceremony!

I just found an additional article which disclosed that the group was from Mexico, primarily speak Spanish, and needed an interpreter to explain to police what happened.

They went the wrong direction down I-90, traveling west instead of east. In an attempt to correct the mistake, the group tried rerouting off the highway to turn around.

Looking at Google Maps, they apparently took the first paved road to the right after exiting I-90W on to Bellevue Way, SE. About1/4 mile after turning off Bellevue Way onto the unnamed road, the road changes to gravel. About 400 feet later, the gravel changes to water at the end of a narrow boat ramp. The ramp is only for launching non-motorized watercraft like canoes and kayaks.

I don't believe they had a destination programmed into the GPS. No GPS woud have sent them the wrong direction on the Interstate and then given directions to exit I-90, take a right onto an unnamed road, continue on the gravel road, and then go on down the boat ramp. Even if it did send them off that particular exit, the directions would have been to turn left on to SE30th Street (with access back to I-90E) instead of right onto the unnamed road.

I believe they were possibly trying to use the GPS as a map, were confused about how it is supposed to work, and were unable to tell west from east or left from right as they looked at it. Clearly, they used poor judgment in continuing onto the gravel portion of the road and then into the water.

If you watch the video you can see that it is gravel/dirt roadway and also "overgrown" with trees around close to the road. Common sense should prevail where you would think "this doesn't look right, we better take another look at this". But then a lot of people do not have common sense anymore.

I am not familiar with the area, but I assume this is where the accident occurred: 47.582388,-122.187066

@alandb: The coordinates you listed are at the end of the paved portion of the road. The gravel portion of the road extends all the way to the water. You can see the boat ramp (and even a couple of canoes/kayaks on the ramp)if you switch to satellite view on Google maps.