Here’s a reminder, boys and girls, not to blindly follow directions dispensed by your GPS – especially if there’s a beach ahead.
As reported by numerous outlets, a trucker’s directional mistake left him stuck in soft sand earlier this week. According to the local newspaper Coastland Times, the mishap happened in the town of Corolla in North Carolina. The irony of that town’s name is not lost on your author.
To be fair, the truck driver didn’t blindly follow the GPS onto a beach, thinking it was an interstate highway. Instead, he found himself on Route 12 North when he should have been pointed 180-degrees in the opposite direction on Route 12 South. When he ran out of pavement, he tried to turn around on the sandy Outer Banks beach. It didn’t go well.
In this age of the smartphone, you know someone was on hand to shoot a video.
Proving the might of physics, the video above shows the truck’s tires spinning uselessly, chewing themselves further and further into the sand as the driver tries to reverse out of the predicament. The truck rocks back and forth like it’s at a Black Sabbath concert.
Wheeling in soft sand is hard enough in a properly prepared rig, with its tires aired down and some good lockers. The heavy truck and its multiple driven wheels didn’t stand a chance as its driver tried to make a u-turn in the stuff.
Surprisingly, officials told reporters that a truck gets stuck on the beach about once a summer, so the driver in this instance is not alone in his error. If this type of thing is an annual occurrence, the local township might do well to add a few signs or barricades along the route. Oh, and if – as a driver – your gut tells you to stop, then it’s probably a good idea to do so.
No one was hurt but it did take a wrecker two hours to clear the area.
[image: YouTube screenshot]