This is one of the first anti-sat-nav signs in the UK.

Would you know what it means?

Vale of Glamorgan Council in South Wales is the first in the UK to use visual signs warning drivers not to believe sat-nav advice after once peaceful villages were reduced to bedlam when heavy-goods lorries got stuck in tiny country lanes.

Now a sign aimed largely at foreign drivers has been put up on the outskirts of the village of St Hilary.

"The proliferation of satellite navigation aids used in heavy goods vehicles, and their over-reliance, especially by overseas drivers, has presented itself as a problem within the Vale of Glamorgan," a spokesman for the council's highways department said.

"A number of these drivers are using routes that are clearly signed as unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles.

"They are continuing with their journey only to find, after travelling some distance, they cannot proceed any further.

"Manoeuvring becomes difficult and the vehicle eventually blocks the road for a significant period of time."

In a bid to overcome the problem, county engineer Mark Simpson designed a pictorial sign aimed at foreign lorry drivers.

The sign was later approved by the Welsh Assembly and has now been put up outside the village for a trial period.

"The signs have been erected on the A48 at the junction to St Hilary and will remain in place for a period of 12 months," the council spokesman added.

"There have been numerous situations where HGVs have become lost and stuck in the village of St Hilary, even though there are signs at the junction of the A48 informing such drivers that the route is unsuitable.

"If the signs prove successful following the trial period, then they will be used at other locations throughout Wales."

Then there is the story of the young woman who was swept away in her car when she was directed into a river:

This is what happened to a driver who put her faith in her satellite navigation system – she ended up in deep water. The £96,000 Mercedes sports car was swept away in a swollen river and the motorist had to be rescued as it sank.

The driver, the latest of many to be led astray by satnavs, was on her way to a christening party in Leicestershire when she was sent down a winding track usually used only by farmers in their 4x4s.

Although the track is signposted as ‘unsuitable for motor vehicles’, the driver carried on and found herself at a ford in the village of Sheepy Magna.

Still accepting what the satnav told her, she set out to cross the ford, but it was swollen after days of heavy rain.

The Mercedes SL500 was swept 600 yards downstream, bouncing fromone bank of the River Sense to the other as the woman, in her late 20s and from London, frantically tried to escape.

She was finally rescued by villager Alice Clark when the car ran aground.

There have been many similar stories.

Surely drivers just need to use common sense and not blindly obey their satnav.