A MOTHER-of-four is blaming her sat nav system after having to dodge 15 oncoming cars in a one-way street.

Hayley Townsend had driven from her home in Druce Way, Blackbird Leys to collect friend Emma Craft from Parkhurst Road in Islington, north London.

But she didn’t know the road was a one-way, three-lane street and said the route her Tom Tom sat nav sent her meant she turned the wrong way into it.

Miss Townsend, who only passed her driving test in July last year, had not driven to London before and was relying on the six-month-old system to direct her.

She had her 18-month-old son Jardell in the back seat of her blue Fiat Brava, along with heavily pregnant friend Caroline Craft, 20, and her mother Karen Wilmer.

Miss Townsend said her sat nav told her to turn the wrong way into Parkhurst Road and she was forced to dodge shocked motorists for a quarter-of-a-mile before swerving into a side road.

She said: “I was at a box junction and there was traffic left, right and straight-on.

“Everyone in the car saw what happened, it told me to go right. I looked on the map where the arrow was and it pointed right.

“The only thing I could do was to drive into on-coming traffic, I couldn’t reverse because I would have hit other cars.

“There were three lanes of cars and a massive bus coming towards me. I must have dodged about 15 cars. Luckily they were going quite slowly, about 25 mph.

“The bus tooted at me really loudly. I had to go round the back of the traffic.

“I had to swerve and dodge some cars and quickly turn left into an entry road. Luckily there was nothing coming.”

She added: “People say mobile phones distract you when you are driving, but how is this helping?

“There would be fewer accidents if people pulled over and used a map.”

Miss Townsend turned her car around before re-joining the road in the right direction and eventually arriving.

She said: “We thought we were going to die. I’m never using my sat nav again.

“I’m quite a sensible driver, I wouldn’t purposely drive into traffic.

“Anyone who saw me on that road must have thought I was a complete lunatic.”

The incident happened on Friday, February 19.

A spokesman for TomTom said: “We’re extremely sorry Miss Townsend has not had an enjoyable TomTom experience. We take our commitment to our customers seriously, and strive for the most accurate mapping.

“However, we always state a TomTom sat nav should be used as an aid to navigation, and common sense should prevail at all times.

“Drivers should use roads signs and observe speed limits.

“We also include on all of our devices a warning to pay attention to road signs which takes precedence over sat nav instructions.”