Did online maps help Kim family get lost?

Posted by Cory Bergman on December 5, 2006

Those of us in the Northwest and the Bay Area are captivated by the story of a San Francisco family on a road trip that ended up getting stuck in the snow on a back road in Oregon. James Kim, an editor at CNET, is still missing. His wife and two young children were found yesterday after over a week in the wilderness (she kept the kids alive by breast feeding.) Kim took off on snowshoes on Saturday, and an intense search is underway to find him. Meanwhile, some are speculating that Kim used an online mapping service to take Bear Camp Road, which is a shortcut during the summer but treacherous during the winter months. Google Maps shows the road as a preferred route, while Yahoo offers a highway as the suggested route. Fascinating.

themappingchannel

It’s only ‘fascinating’ if James is found alive. Otherwise, it’s a tragedy.
http://dcabloob.blogspot.com Everett W.

And at this point, it’s not just the Pac NW and Bay Area obsessed over this story. It’s gone national in a significant way.
Joel

This is interesting. I wonder if a mapping company or service can be found legally responsible. I know I have relied on Google maps and then later found out it wasnâ€™t the best route.
Jose Joseph

People like this should be sent a bill for the distress they cause to the rescue searchers. Highways are given to us to make travel easier. Why did these nitwits try to take a shortcut in winter? It reminds me of the tourists who stop to feed the bears, and get bit. Or sailors who get stuck on reefs. It’s not our problem, so leave us alone!
http://roguepundit.typepad.com/ Gordie

I live right near the road the Kims tried to take from Merlin towards Gold Beach. Even if they used on-line maps to find it, they still either missed or discounted a couple of large warning signs about snowy conditions a few miles ahead, then proceeded miles up a winding, rutted, narrow two-lane or one-lane-with-pullouts road. And they kept going despite the unplowed snow. Between winter snow and rockslides, the Bear Camp Road they were trying to follow snows closed this time of year and often isn’t fully passable often until Memorial Day weekend (and occasionally after).

I can understand though how they took a wrong fork and ended up 15 miles off the Bear Camp Road…even when conditions are good, it’s not always easy to choose the right forks up there.

One thing the Kims obviously consistently failed to do is turn around…when they missed their turnoff near Roseburg, when they saw (or at least passed) the snow signs (which are a few miles apart), when the Bear Camp Road started looking poor and rugged, and when they found snow. I sure hope it didn’t cost them more than it already has.
Anonymous

where did you guys get the photo of kati kim? don’t you think you should credit the appropriae source?
thedetroitchannel

jose joseph – heartless.

if the guy is found safe then you make this sort of statement. otherwise, stfu. please!
ryan

to blame american citizens for getting lost on an american road is stupid,i hate to break it to you but the state of oregon is part of the usa,it is not a special little seperate nation with a really lame economy.these people had a right to travel through the independent nation of oregon.for all you people who are lame enough to actually say that this family got what they deserved will get your in the end.
ryan

oh by the way jose,the bill for a rescue effort usually is passed along to the folks who are rescued.i know this because i am a member of a search and rescue team.
http://8020seo.com 8020

“Fascinating” – no. Important to note in the interests of helping to prevent future such tragedies – yes.

A number of those roads are marked in red on ODOT maps (Oregon Department of Transportation) as “This route closed in winter” because they are not plowed/salted/etc. in the winter months as Gordie noted above.

My deepest condolences go out to the Kim family and their friends. James was clearly quite beloved by the community, and will obviously be missed.
Kevin

I grew up in an area a bit south of Gold Beach, and have been over Bear Camp a few times. I agree that these people getting lost, and James Kim dying is quite the tragedy, but I also agree that if you persist in being stupid bad things will happen. Bear Camp is a bad road in winter, we’ve made that quite clear, but we can’t say that the Kim’s didn’t know that becasue there are big warning signs that you really can’t miss. Also, even if they did figure they could get through, they should have realised they couldn’t when the snow started getting deep. Number two, if James decided he had to leave the car, he should have stayed ON THE ROAD not gone galavanting through the brush to find the river. My heart really does go out to the Kim family, but we have to look at the facts here people, there is no one here to blame but the Kim’s for not turning around when they had the oppurtunity.
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