RE: [Paddlewise] Another wrinkle on GPS navigation

Happened on I-90 in Washington a couple of years ago. A truck with a pilot
car no less took out an overpass near Easton. All survived except the
overpass which had to be replaced. 

Christopher G. Madden
maddencg_at_earthlink.net


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net
[mailto:owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net] On Behalf Of Craig Jungers
Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 1:51 PM
To: Bradford R. Crain
Cc: Paddlewise
Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Another wrinkle on GPS navigation

He could have bought a truck-specific GPS system (from Garmin, etc.) for
about $500 which has all the pertinent info about clearances, truck routes,
etc. programmed into it. These are relatively new but there are job-specific
GPS units for aviation with some more sophisticated (IFR approaches, etc.)
and some less. And there are, of course, maritime-specific units. I have a
marine GPS unit that accepts inputs from depth sounder and radar and
interfaces with a VHF to automatically transmit lat/lon coordinates with a
distress signal.

But I suspect he probably won't need one now.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 9:39 AM, Bradford R. Crain <crainb_at_pdx.edu> wrote:

> Yesterday, a truck driver in Marion County, Oregon was trying to get to
> Interstate 5 from a side road, using his GPS for directions. The truck
> was 14 feet high, and the rapidly approaching railroad overpass was
> only 11 feet high. The overpass survived, the driver was ok, but the truck
> is no longer 14 feet high.
>
> You could probably get the same effect by driving your pickup truck or
> SUV loaded with kayaks or canoes  and entering a parking garage.
> Should make quite a racket upon impact. I've done similar with a tree
> branch.
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