Police in Mildura, Australia, are telling motorists not to rely solely on Apple’s iOS 6 maps system for directions, after the app led at least six different motorists looking for Mildura, into the middle of Murray Sunset National Park, 43 miles away from Mildura’s actual location.
Murray Sunset National Park is 3,000 square miles of desert, and is not somewhere pleasant to be stranded unless you want to make friends with a variety of poisonous snakes and insects.
Police officers found that there were some unfortunate motorists who spent as long as 24 hours lost in the National Park. These troubled travellers were forced to walk for hours on end with no shade, food or water in temperatures of up to 46C in order to find phone signal and call the police for help.
Inspector Simon Clemence of the Victoria Police said: “Some people just trust the technology. Any sat-nav is going to give you errors, but this one in particular is giving us a big one that may end up in a loss of life.”
One man came particularly close to tragedy after driving into the National Park at 6pm, three hours before darkness, his car became stuck in the sand, and he had to get out and walk to find help. He only managed to get phone signal after walking for 24 hours.
The police have confirmed that they have assisted at least six distressed motorists who had become stranded, and they presume that other motorists also drove into the outback but managed to find their way back.
The Victoria Police have now issued a statement on their website, and they have also contacted Apple to ask them to change the flaw in their mapping system. However, a check done at 10pm on Sunday still shows Mildura as being in the centre of the National Park.
Image via TNT
