By now you have probably heard about the LA woman…

…who is SUING GOOGLE AFTER BEING HIT BY A CAR.

Here’s the story:

• This woman from LA used her Blackberry to ask Google for walking directions while in Park City, Utah

• The walking directions told her to walk along a busy highway that had no sidewalks

• She did what Google told her

• She was struck by a car

• Now she’s suing Google because the GPS directions told her to do something that was unsafe.

Pretty stupid, right?

But GPS leads people to do all kinds of STUPID things…

…so just to make sure we all stay safe, let’s review some common-sense GPS rules:

GPS SAFETY-TIP #1:

YOU NEED TO KNOW…

…IF YOUR GPS IS SMARTER THAN YOU, OR NOT

Perhaps you have heard true stories like these:

• Driver almost DRIVES OFF CLIFF because GPS says to go that way

• Driver DRIVES INTO RIVER because GPS says to go that way

• Driver gets STUCK ON SNOWMOBILE TRAIL because GPS says it’s a road

• Driver almost gets killed by oncoming traffic because GPS TELLS HIM TO TURN WRONG WAY

• DRIVER HAS TO EVACUATE CAR AND WATCHES AS IT IS DESTROYED BY SPEEDING TRAIN…

…because GPS told him to start driving down railroad tracks.

The lesson to learn here is this:

YOUR GPS UNIT IS NOT SMARTER THAN YOU.

It is always better to rely on your own eyes and common sense…

…over directions from GPS that don’t sound right.

GPS SAFETY-TIP #2:

DON’T RELY ON GPS AS YOUR ONLY INFORMATION SOURCE

This tip is inspired by a true story you may have heard last year:

• A demolition crew was giving a set of GPS coordinates…

…and they used the coordinates to locate a house, which they then destroyed.

But here’s the problem:

• The coordinates were wrong…

…and since they didn’t verify the coordinates with the actual address, they destroyed the wrong house

And here’s the lesson we can all learn from this story:

Just because GPS says that that you have “Arrived at Destination” doesn’t means it’s true…

…and with that in mind, it’s smart to make sure GPS has sent you to the right street and the right house before you crash the party.

GPS SAFETY-TIP #3:

LET YOUR GPS WARN YOU ABOUT SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Your GPS unit may offer many safety features that you don’t know about it…

…so it may be useful to crack open the user’s manual to see if your unit offers audio safety features like these:

• Warnings when you go over the speed limit

• Warnings when you are driving near schools and churches

• Warnings if you are about to go onto an unpaved road (as if you couldn’t tell by looking?)

• Warnings if you have driven for a long period without taking a break

• Warnings about leaving the device in the car.

GPS SAFETY-TIP #4:

PULL OVER BEFORE TYPING NEW DIRECTIONS INTO GPS

We all know about the story of the train engineer on a commuter train in LA who caused a train wreck that killed 25 people…

…because he was texting while operating the train.

And here’s the lesson we can all learn from this tragic train wreck:

Typing and driving don’t mix.

So if you need to change or add new directions to your GPS when you’re already on the road:

• Find a safe place where you can pull off the roadway

• Enter your new destination

• Make sure you can safely pull back onto the roadway

GPS SAFETY-TIP #5:

DON’T ADD YOUR OWN HOME TO THE “FAVORITES” ON YOUR GPS

We’ve talked about this before:

• If you add your own home to your GPS unit and label it as home…

• …then if your GPS stolen, you’ve also told the thief how to get to your house.

So here’s a better idea:

• Drive to the nearest supermarket or other landmark a mile or so away from your house

• Let your GPS unit log that location into it’s memory and call it home

• Now when you need to get home, you’re GPS will always get you to the nearby landmark

• And if your GPS is stolen, no thief will ever get any closer than a mile to your home, either.

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