Kitchener woman follows GPS right into Georgian Bay

A 23 year old woman from Kitchener followed her car’s GPS… right into a boat launch on Little Tub Harbour off of Georgian Bay.

According to OPP Const. Katrina Rubinstein-Gilbert, the driving conditions were difficult as the woman approached a boat launch on Little Tub Harbour near midnight, with rain and fog making visibility difficult. As a result, the woman made a wrong turn with dramatic consequences.

“How the launch works, it’s not an airborne thing. It’s not ‘Dukes of Hazzard.’ It kind of goes off the road and the launch just drops all of a sudden,” she said. “So she would have been driving on the road, and then all of a sudden just dropped and hit water.”

The stayed afloat long enough for the woman to roll down the window, grab her purse and swim about 30 metres to shore. Once there, she walked to the nearest hotel and summoned police. The car, meanwhile, sank completely, prompting the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Trenton, Ont., to issue a broadcast instructing boats not to approach that launch for fear of being damaged by the submerged vehicle.

The woman escaped without any injuries and did not even suffer hypothermia from her dip in the four-degree-Celsius water. She’s in good spirits but embarrassed. The OPP say alcohol was “absolutely not” a factor in the incident. No charges are pending.

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