A much as GPS can be a helpful navigation tool, let this serve as a reminder that you still need to keep your eyes on the road.
A Hawaiian vacation turned out to be a bit wetter than anticipated for two tourists who found themselves in a precarious situation when they drove their vehicle straight into the ocean.
According to local outlets, the tourists were on their way to a manta ray tour on the Big Island, when they drove at a good clip into the water at Honokohau Harbour in Kailua-Kona.
“I think they just must’ve taken their eyes off the road for a second,” one witness, Christie Hutchinson, told Hawaii News Now.
Hutchinson shared a four-and-a-half minute clip to social media, which shows the driver of the Dodge Caravan unfazed and smiling as the minivan slides farther into the water.
“Pretty sure that wasn’t supposed to happen,” Hutchinson is heard saying as she recorded video on her phone.
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Hutchinson told local news outlet Big Island Now that she’d just returned from a day of sailing when she and several others witnessed the blunder.
“I don’t think (the driver) initially realized that she was in the harbour,” Hutchinson said. “The water didn’t actually start flowing in ’til a little while after.”
Witness Tony Perman told ABC affiliate KITV he was “stunned” by the afternoon’s events.
“I was so stunned because I was actually in the Jeep getting ready to pull the boat out of the ramp, and I see a car coming the other direction. That was the absolute last thing you would expect to see when you’re on a boat ramp.”
Perman said he jumped in the water to help. At the urging of bystanders, the two women in the van crawled out through the vehicle’s windows and were pulled to safety by locals.
“I was going to yell at them, ladies Google is wrong! But before I even had a chance to do that, they were already in the water,” he said.
“Don’t trust the Google map lady. Don’t trust any GPS, man. Use your eyeballs.”
By the time first responders arrived, the vehicle was submerged and had to be dragged out of the water by a tow truck and cables.
Hutchinson said the whole ordeal was kind of funny, as the tourists seemed unbothered by their sinking vehicle.
“It was amazing to see how well that car floats,” she told Big Island Now.
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