Sat nav sends ambulance on 400 mile round trip

Oops. An ambulance meant to be carrying a patient a short distance in Essex was accidently sent 200 miles in the wrong direction by a faulty satellite navigation system, reports the Manchester Evening News.

"The crew had been tasked with taking the male patient 12 miles across Essex from King George Hospital in Ilford to Mascalls Park Hospital near Brentwood - a 12 mile journey which should have taken about 30 minutes.

But a fault in the ambulance's on-board satellite navigation system sent the London Ambulance Service crew on an eight-hour round trip to Manchester.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said the crew set off in the early hours of Tuesday morning. They didn't reach Mascalls Park Hospital until the early afternoon.

He said the crew hadn't been to Mascalls Park before and only realised they were heading in the wrong direction when they reached the outskirts of Manchester."

Whoever said a blind reliance on the powers of technology was foolhardy? Plan B, anyone?