Satnav systems guide cars to a watery end

location based services

There's a clue in the name of the hamlet - Brook End - as well as signs warning drivers to beware of the deep water. Yet dozens of motorists have become marooned in the river Avon in Wiltshire after being directed into the water by their satellite navigation systems.
So many drivers have come to a gurgling halt that locals are charging £25 a time to haul them out. The problem began when a main road in the town of Sherston was closed for roadworks. The diversion recommended by some satnav systems takes motorists to the ford, known as The Splash, at Brook End.


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For larger cars during dry spells, the ford is passable. But after rain the water can be 1.2 metres (4ft) deep and saloon cars and vans struggle to cross. Lesley Bennett, 59, a parish councillor who lives next to the ford, said: "Before the road closure there was one a week but now we're getting one or two a day.
"When the driver's car conks out he looks stunned and when you ask him what happened he says, 'My satnav told me it was this way.' There are signs warning of water but the fools just plough on regardless."

She added: "We do what we can to help. I offer to dry people's clothes for them while they wait for help to be towed out. The other day my husband came home and I had to explain why there was a van driver's trousers in our tumble dryer."

Julie Jackson, 45, of Carterton, Oxfordshire, and her mother, Delcie Fielder, 70, had to abandon their car when it conked out in the water. "Water came right into the car, covering our feet," Ms Jackson said. "This is my daughter's car, so I dread to think what she'll say. I don't know if it's a write-off yet."