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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Today's Idiot - GPS Division |
| 2008-04-20 |
| Whatever happened to "keep your eyes on the road"? Really cool picture at the link. As of today, we're taking bets to see how long it will take before people realize that "GPS" does not stand for "Auto Pilot." The latest "But the GPS told me to..." story is brought to you by a charter bus driver in Figures.... Piloting a coach through the Washington Arboretum -- as the GPS instructed him -- the driver ignored, or didn't see, or didn't believe (take your pick) the flashing lights and sign warning him that his 11-foot-high bus was too tall for the looming 9-foot concrete overpass. He vas just following orders.... You can see how the story ends. The overpass ended up with some superficial damage, the coach got a removable top, and the girls softball team inside received some minor injuries. Luckily, the 60-inch sewage pipe inside the overpass wasn't ruptured. Oh, sh**.... The driver was ticketed for $154. And in response to the charter company executive who remarked, "We just thought it would be a safe route because, why else would they have a selection for a bus?", a Garmin [GPS manufacturer] spokesman responded, "Stoplights aren't in our databases, either, but you're still expected to stop for stoplights." As one of the commenters on the site said, "Common sense really must be a superpower, considering so few people have it." :-D |
| Posted by:Barbara Skolaut |
| #10 I'm glad this idiot didn't single handedly exterminate an entire girl's softball team. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-04-20 22:51 |
| #9 we have bike/ped paths striped like that, Barbara |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-20 20:23 |
| #8 "appears to be a pedestrian underpass" I dunno, guys - there's a center line painted on the road, and a standard metal guardrail. The driver's |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-04-20 20:18 |
| #7 no doubt it was the bus driver's fault, but it appears to be a pedestrian underpass, not a road. Jeebus |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-20 20:06 |
| #6 Frank, it is a left over from many year ago and is only a pedestrian o/p. I think that was its original intent, but the pix that we are seeing here are way funny; its anybody but the driver or teh bus company's fault. Remember the guy with the rental car that followed the GPS mandate to turn, and turn he did right onto some train tracks only to meet a commuter train? and he was bitching about how he was on the hook for the car when it was the GPS's fault? too bad these Morons didn't get Darwined; at least they wouldn't pass their particular stoopid gene on..... |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2008-04-20 19:58 |
| #5 who the hell builds an overpass with a nine foot clearance? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-20 17:50 |
| #4 Many years ago, I drove a school bus part-time. I was headed down a busy street one day when a Honda Accord decided to change lanes into the side of the bus. I stopped and checked on my passengers, who had barely felt the impact, then got out to check on the Honda. It had bounced off the bus, jumped the curb and spun around before coming to rest in a nearby parking lot. The first words out of the driver's mouth were the monumentally obvious, "I never saw you!" I thought, gee, this bus is 46 feet long, 10 feet high, and painted bright yellow. I don't know what else we could do other than put strobe lights on it. In the years since, some school bus operators have in fact started using strobe lights, arranged Christmas light fashion down the sides. Stupidity remains invincible however, and accidents still happen. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2008-04-20 17:41 |
| #3 Comment from the article.... Well, even if you were lazy and disregarded the fact that your vehicle was over 9 feet, I can tell you, since I live about 10 minutes from that picture, that they have over-height sensors that blink lights at you on either side of that bridge. So you'd have to trust the GPS, ignore your knowledge that the bus is over 9 feet, AND ignore the blinking lights over the sign that's labeled "Over-height Warning". That's just stupidity. Judging by the pic the driver didn't even slow down and must have been going at a pretty good clip. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-04-20 14:06 |
| #2 Right, to achieve common sense, I always step into a phone booth and pull over my plain brown wrapper. It's phone booths that are becoming scarce. |
| Posted by: Regular Guy 2008-04-20 13:14 |
| #1 Well, hell - too bad I can't type. Mods - any chance of some help with the title? :-( |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-04-20 13:09 |