Stuck Truck

I see that yet another sat-nav blunder has landed one of our now overwhelmingly foreign truckers in hot water. Has anyone else noticed the decimation of the once proud UK haulage industry, all we see on the highways and byways now seems to be eastern European registered trucks? In the latest mishap a Czech lorry driver was stranded for three nights in south-west England after his satellite navigation system directed him down a narrow country lane. Yuri Odenhai, was on his way to pick up a cargo in Devon when his 40-tonne truck became stuck fast on a sharp bend near the village of Ivybridge. The trucker's company, Kohlman and Hasek, refused to pay for an expensive recovery operation at the weekend, meaning the 50-foot (15-metre) long, eight-feet wide truck remained wedged in place. Odenhai had tried to ask for directions before following the sat-nav down the lane but his English was not too good and nobody understood him. The lorry was finally towed out by a tractor after a tree surgeon cut away surrounding vegetation. Mat Auburn, said his family took pity on Yuri and invited him in for meals during his ordeal. But he preferred to stay in his cab overnight rather than find hotel accommodation. The diversion put a few extra miles on people's journeys, and we can safely say that it won't be the last of these incidents.