(photo source Indy Star’s Madeline Buckley)
Technology. Not always a good thing when we rely on it, over using common sense. Take those GPS gadgets. Pretty cool that you can type in an address, and WHAM!, it tells you EXACTLY how to get there! But even computers can screw up. This happened in downtown Indy yesterday, when a woman claims she was trying to get to the hospital where her daughter was preparing to deliver a baby. Unfortunately, the woman’s truck ended up partially in the downtown canal. Look at the picture above. Whether it was a GPS device or a HUMAN that said, “Proceed straight ahead”, wouldn’t your VISION tell you that you would be driving into a CANAL FILLED WITH WATER?! Luckily, this misguided gal hit the brakes and only ended up with her front tire dangling in the water, much like someone testing the temperature of a pool using only their toes. The woman explained to authorities that her GPS directed her into the canal. A couple of things don’t make sense here:
1) The canal downtown has a large sidewalk surface on each side. I’ve jogged and biked on it many times. I have NEVER witnessed someone driving on it. It doesn’t resemble a road, nor are there any STOP signs or SPEED LIMIT signs!
2) This incident happened Thursday morning, when there were plenty of other motorists out on the roads. Wasn’t this lady even slightly surprised not to see ANYONE else driving on the canal walkways??? Might have been a tiny hint that she made a “wrong turn at Albuquerque” as Bugs Bunny would say.
Yesterday, I was downtown heading to Pf Chang’s to pick up some lunch. I had a vague idea where it was, but I put the address in the GPS in my phone, and clicked on WALKING DIRECTIONS. The journey began as the GPS told me to “Proceed for 2 miles”. It was a nice day, so I didn’t mind the long walk. But suddenly I approached an intersection, where on the other side of the street, the sidewalk was shut down because new concrete was being poured. My GPS was very firm in their next command, “STAY ON ROUTE FOR 1 MILE”. Now, if I had stayed on this route, I would have walked thru wet cement, which actually sounds like fun. But the construction workers with names like Tiny Joe and Mac, had python like biceps that would have crushed my head had I walked through their freshly cemented sidewalk project. My point is that there’s technology, and then there’s common sense.
Thankfully the woman in this story was not harmed, and I hope her grandchild was delivered without the help of any GPS devices (kidding! hope mom and baby are doing well!)
