Tuesday, January 3, 2017

"GPS blamed for surge in runaway trucks in small Arkansas town"

Arkansas Online:
Armed with GPS technology, truck drivers have been barreling through a rugged section of the Ozark Mountains, burning up brakes and occasionally bouncing off bluffs or rolling into a ditch.

...

GPS -- short for global positioning system -- doesn't tell drivers there is a 1,300-foot drop in elevation from the intersection of Arkansas 103 into Ponca, 4 miles to the south, Albers said. And there are two big curves on Arkansas 43 before the hill flattens out at Ponca.

"It doesn't look like that on Google Maps," Albers said. "The terrain doesn't look that different."

Three of those seven truck drivers managed to negotiate the first curve heading south on Arkansas 43, but they had burned up their brakes by the time they reached the second curve, Albers said. As a result, the runaway trucks hit the ditch across the highway
Via.