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'Ignore sat-nav' sign posted to protect village

Satellite navigation systems have caused problems in the past, as we at bdaily Towers have noted from time to time. But now steps are being taken to combat these potentially disastrous errors.

A council has put up a sign warning lorry drivers to ignore their satellite navigation systems after faulty sat-nav directions caused traffic chaos in South Wales. Vale of Glamorgan Council is the first in the UK to use visual signs warning drivers not to believe sat-nav advice after once peaceful villages were reduced to bedlam when heavy-goods lorries got stuck in tiny country lanes.

A spokesman for the council’s highways department said: “The proliferation of satellite navigation aids used in heavy goods vehicles, and their over-reliance, especially by overseas drivers, has presented itself as a problem within the Vale of Glamorgan. “A number of these drivers are using routes that are clearly signed as unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles. They are continuing with their journey only to find, after travelling some distance, they cannot proceed any further.”

In a bid to overcome the problem, a county engineer designed a pictorial sign aimed at foreign lorry drivers, which has now been put up on the outskirts of the village of St Hilary.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .