Re: Online Directions May Have Misled Kim Family

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Wow.

- - ferg



- -- "Jon O." <jono () networkcommand com> wrote:

All:

May have mislead -- I'm almost sure of it.

I grew up "out in the woods" in Oregon and my Dad still works
for the Forest Service out there. The Forest Service was providing
some logistics support to the SAR teams. He spoke to the sheriff and
suggested the police find out what type of GPS the car is equipped
with, get the same model, and plot in the destination and drive the
route. This comes from our experience in the woods of Maine and
getting mis-routed by the in-car GPS (we almost ended up in the
Atlantic, but we knew we were off route and knew how to get back). 

The Kim family ate at Denny's in Glendale, OR. Here's the map from
there to where they were going:
http://tinyurl.com/y55e5q

Mapquest does something interesting, it routes you the same way as
google:
http://tinyurl.com/y4k6cd

But it has a checkbox:
Avoid Seasonally-Closed Roads

That doesn't change the route at all ;(. This is probably because 
there are roads that have planned closure during the winter and
ones that just become impassable during bad weather.

The car and most of the family was found near where NF-23 turns south.

As many of you probably figure if you've driven out any of these
small, yet paved/unplowed mountain roads, taking NF
(National Forest) 23 road out of Grants Pass when it might snow at
night is a *very* bad idea.

No NF road (or BLM or FS) is a good idea on a winter night when
it might snow/freeze -- especially if you aren't from the area.
Regardless, as the link above shows, Google doesn't know that.
These roads could likely have slides, downed trees, etc. and
are not maintained during the non-tourist season.

I think the lesson to learn here is that these maps don't have 
weather or road conditions in mind. People need to overlay their
own judgement. Maybe the warnings about this could be stronger
on the mapping websites?

Here's a picture of us driving over the same moutain range on the
26th -- the day the Kim family woke up on the mountain side snowed in.
There was only about 4 inches of snow at this point, but note the
chains on the tires, the down jacket/hat -- it was cold and slick
out there.

http://flickr.com/photos/netcmd/316215033/



 



On 06-Dec-2006, Fergie wrote:
> This not a "fun" topic, and I really hope this story has a happy
> ending to it -- many of us here in the Bay Area have been following
> this story very closely.
>
> Having said that, this angle does raise an interesting point.
>
> Via MSNBC (AP).
>
> [snip]
>
> The snow-covered back-country road that trapped the Kim family of San
> Francisco was meant for tourists, but not at this time of year.
>
> Authorities say the cyber-savvy family may have plucked the route from
> Grants Pass to Gold Beach from an online mapping service, unaware of the
> elements.
>
> Despite its impassable snowdrifts and single-lane, Bear Camp Road is
> offered as the preferred route on some Web sites and on-board-directions
> software available on some new cars, most of which have no business in
> those mountains in the winter.
>
> [snip]
>
> More:
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16062935/
>
> Contrast with this:
> http://techdirt.com/articles/20061204/170215.shtml
>
> - ferg
>
>
>
> --
> "Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
>  Engineering Architecture for the Internet
>  fergdawg(at)netzero.net
>  ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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