BAD weather spelt disaster for a foreign lorry driver whose 40-tonne vehicle became stuck in a country lane.

The giant Transmec Group lorry became wedged in a field off Symonds Lane, Yalding, after its Hungarian driver was forced to try to turn round to avoid a fallen tree.

It is understood the driver’s satellite navigation system told him that the tiny one-track road would be the quickest way to get to his destination - even though the lorry was as wide as the lane.

Cllr Geraldine Brown, chairman of Yalding Parish Council, said: “We’ve been moaning about sat nav for a long time and with good reason. Anyone can see that lane is not suitable for a 40ft articulated lorry to go down.

“He turned into Symonds Lane as directed by his sat nav and realised that it was too narrow.

“He then saw an open farm gate and reversed in, trying to turn round, but, in the dark, he completely embedded the lorry in the ground and then couldn’t move it again.”

The driver, who seemed unsure of his destination, eventually raised the alarm at dusk on Monday and police and highways officers attended.

He and his lorry had to stay put all night and the HGV only managed to get out on Tuesday morning when the fallen tree was moved and a recovery vehicle dragged the lorry out of the mud.

Cllr Brown added: “He was a nice guy and spoke English, but he did say that if there had been signs pointing him in the correct direction he would not have followed his TomTom.”

The situation is a vindication for Yalding villagers, who have been complaining about huge articulated vehicles using village roads for more than 10 years.

They want to see a ban on all lorries over 17 tonnes in Lees Road and the village’s main town bridge - preventing drivers from rat-running to industrial estates in Maidstone and Marden.

The issue of foreign drivers using inappropriate satellite navigation systems has also been raised during the campaign.

A Kent Highway Services spokesman said: “We are taking up the issue of satellite navigation with the manufacturers in to get them to introduce systems that direct lorries away from villages and country lanes.

THE Freight Transport Association is offering to carry out an independent survey on HGVs in Yalding.

Spokesman Geoff Dossetter said the problem is that Yalding sits on the most available route between Tonbridge and Marden and, as a result, suffers “unwelcome” HGV traffic.

“I believe that it is not clear as to which of the vehicles in Yalding are there because they have local business and thus no choice, as opposed to those which are using the route as the quickest from where they have been to where they are going,” he said.

“In order to investigate this further, we are offering to conduct a survey to ascertain the facts - how many vehicles, where they are going, where they have been, what they are carrying, is any other route viable, and any other relevant information.”

An FTA spokeswoman was filmed yesterday in Yalding for Sunday’s BBC TV South East’s The Politics Show which will discuss use of sat nav equipment by lorries.

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