Appeals on fines against illegal U-turns guided by GPS navigation apps for past five years and solutions taken by police

Question:

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye: To ask the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs (a) in the past five years, how many appeals have the Traffic Police received against fines for illegal U-turns, citing Global Positioning System mobile applications that h ave guided drivers to take the illegal routes; and (b) whether the Police work closely with these navigation companies to rectify such errors.


Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs:

1. The Traffic Police has not tracked the number of appeals made on grounds of erroneous Global Positioning System (GPS) prompts. The position taken has been that it is for the motorist to follow road signs regardless of what their GPS prompts will tell the m. The road signs will tell them whether they can or cannot make a U-turn.

2. We thank the Member for the suggestion and will look into notifying navigation companies when we come across credible reports of allegedly erroneous GPS prompts.