Government To Look At Satnav Problems

Some satnavs have been sending people the wrong way - include directing Hampshire ambulances the long way round to get to hospital.

Transport minister Norman Baker hopes a government summit on satnav problems will help put an end to the misery caused when drivers follow out-of-date or incorrect directions.

Delegates will try to find solutions to satnav mistakes that can lead to often outlandish, but sometimes tragic consequences.

Here are some examples:

* June 2009: A 79-year old retired banker was taken the wrong way to hospital through country lanes twice by ambulance crews, due to faulty satnav devices.

The ``anomaly'' in the system led to Leslie Palmer enduring a 45-minute trip to accident & emergency at Royal Hampshire County Hospital both times when it should only have taken 20 minutes.

But separate ambulance crews in separate vehicles told his wife of 55 years, Jean, that they had to use satnav as that was the rule.

* March 2007: A coachload of schoolchildren due to visit Hampton Court Palace were instead driven around for five hours in traffic after the driver using satnav ended up at Hampton Court, in Islington, north London.

The children, aged around eight and from Orchard Lea Junior School in Fareham, Hampshire, never got to visit the attraction that day after a teacher called a halt to the trip.