GPS (Global Positioning System) can get you lost and can help you find your way home.
They should carry street directories as backup next time they go on a trip.
Posted on 12/28/2009 10:17:16 PM PST by myknowledge
An American couple who relied on their SUV's navigation system to guide them through the high desert in the state of Oregon got stuck in snow for three days when the GPS unit sent them down a remote forest road.
On Sunday, atmospheric conditions apparently changed enough for their GPS-enabled mobile phone to get a weak signal and relay co-ordinates to a dispatcher, Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger said.
"GPS almost did 'em in and GPS saved 'em," Evinger said.
"It will give you options to pick the shortest route. You certainly get the shortest route. But it may not be a safe route."
Evinger said the couple got stranded on Christmas Day and a sheriff's deputy found them in the Winema-Fremont National Forest outside the small town of Silver Lake on Sunday afternoon and pulled their four-wheel-drive Toyota Sequoia out of the snow with a winch.
John Rhoads, 65, and his wife, Starry Bush-Rhoads, 67, made it home safely to Reno, Nevada.
"It will be (a Christmas) we remember the rest of our lives," Starry Bush-Rhoads said in a telephone interview from her home.
"They said if they didn't find us 'til this time next spring, we wouldn't be happy."
The couple was well-equipped for winter travel, carrying food, water and warm clothes, the sheriff said.
"Their statement was, being prepared saved their life," he said.
The couple had been in Portland and followed their GPS as it directed them south on US Highway 97 to Oregon Highway 31, which goes through Silver Lake and Lakeview before connecting with US Highway 395 to Reno, Evinger said.
In the town of Silver Lake, the unit told them to turn right on Forest Service Road 28, and they followed that and some spur roads nearly 56 kilometres before getting stuck in about half a metre of snow near Thompson Reservoir, the sheriff said.
"For some reason, they finally got a weak signal after 2 1/2 days," Evinger said. "They called in. They alternated between two different cell phone numbers."
A GPS-enabled phone is able to send its co-ordinates to emergency dispatchers, and eventually one of the couple's phones sent its location to the dispatcher's console, the sheriff said.
GPS (Global Positioning System) can get you lost and can help you find your way home.
They should carry street directories as backup next time they go on a trip.
Letme see if I read this correctly.
they got instructions that were in fact the shortest route but not necessarily the safest route?
Oh wah wah wah, cry me a friggin river.
Let ‘em rot in their car, I don’t care.
I don’t care how much this stuff is hyped.
Having access to good, reliable maps is important and should always be used in addition to GPS, especially in rural areas.
They drove into and through a couple of feet of snow until it built up under their vehicle and lifted it enough for them to lose traction and get stuck.
That wasn’t the GPS’s fault.
these story are becoming more common. We rely on high tech but the high tech has hicups, so we resort to paper as backup
This past spring Mrs. Wasp and I were touring Huston, TX and programed the Johnson Space Center into our Tom Tom. We ended up in the far rear corner of a gigantic appartment complex parking lot!!!
My sis and I were testing hers driving from my house to hers. The thing kept saying ‘turn right’. Just before we got to the bottom of her driveway it said ‘turn right’. Problem was the driveway was left and ‘right’ was over an embankment. Stupid GPS.
Anyone remember that episode of the Office when Michael and Dwight drive into a lake because the GPS keeps telling them to turn?
"You Should Have Bought a Squirrel."
A map is good too.
Ah, the GPS, they were supposed to help avoid arguments, but that hasn’t worked out quite well. I’ve been trying to convince my husband t hat the GPS isn’t necessarily always 100% right.
Fastest my butt. Maybe shortest distance, but definitely not the fastest. Even in summer months with good driving conditions it would be faster to stay on 31 till it met up with 395 at Valley Falls then followed to Reno.
I’m surprised the forest service road wasn’t gated off. Many of them in that area of Oregon are during winter.
Idiots.
Forget GPS. Given a decent map, I can find anything on this green earth, no matter how remote, no problem.
Oh heh read it wrong, they were on shortest when they probably should have picked fastest.
Either way just staying on 31 and a good GPS would have auto-recalculated in a matter of seconds.
MapQuest would've helped these folks better....or a stop at the corner Gas Station. (GS).
And that’s another point I’ve tried to make, the shortest route is not necessarily the fastest way to get to where you’re going. Hubby once took the shortest route, but it was miles of street lights vs just staying on the freeway which would have gotten us to our destination faster.
Well, make sure the map is up to date.
My wife and I have had a couple of cross-country moves in the past few years, and we always do the Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency thing:
Primary: GPS
Alternate: Google Maps print outs
Contingency: old-fashioned map
Emergency: OnStar/AAA/ask for directions at gas station (implied task there—study some Spanish or Arabic)
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