Ukrainians follow GPS blindly — This happened

Ukrainian truck driver and his partner certainly did not make it to their destination on time, as they apparently unconditionally trusted the navigation system in their vehicle.

The driver, listening to the directions of the GPS, made a turn off the main road and ended up in the Merzse-swamp, located in the 17th district of Budapest, with his truck weighing over 10 tonnes. Instead of backing up on the narrow road, he followed it for about six kilometres, getting stuck eventually, according to Blikk.

The semi-trailer truck sank almost half a meter into the muddy soil, as it continuously kept raining.

Norbert Erdős, owner of MMM Trans Kft, and his team arrived at the scene to rescue the trapped drivers and their vehicle from the captivity of the mud.

The continuous rain held the two Ukrainian men captive, as they sat in the truck for two full days before daring to leave the sunken vehicle and asking for help from the field guards.

“We explored the area by foot first, which was almost impassable. Only after that did we start the rescue with a 25 tonne vehicle, with the help of a windlass, meter by meter, we managed to tow the semi-trailer out in three hours,”

said Erdős, who also admitted that the Ukrainian driver destroyed the GPS in front of him and his team after the rescue. The trapped foreigners are reportedly waiting at the premises of MMM Trans Kft for further instructions from their boss.

According to Ferenc Pausz, transportation expert, it is good to have a navigational system in the car, but one should use their common sense as well.

“I use it in my car too, but I never rely on it completely,” said Pausz. He says not only impassable roads should raise suspicion, but it could also happen that a map is not up-to-date and tries to lead the driver onto a road that has an entry prohibited sign. “While a navigational system is useful, one has to make sure that it only plays a secondary role. One cannot blindly trust it,” summarised the expert.

Because of weight and height restrictions trucks cannot always take the same routes as cars, so most of the navigational systems should have an option where one can choose a vehicle category, so the GPS can plan the route accordingly.

Source: https://www.blikk.hu/