Faulty online mapping linked to wrong turn disaster

The Age ^ | 12/8/06 | Asher Moses

[2banana]

Hmmm - looks like a lawsuit coming in our silly land of tort...

[jjm2111]

Tech savviness does not necessarily equal common sense. It sucks that this family died, but to not have any awareness of the conditions is just plain stupid.

[Red Badger]

If this turns out to be true, there would be a whopper of a lawsuit forthcoming...........

[krb]

I smell a lawsuit.

[BenLurkin]

" the cyber-savvy family may have plucked the route from . . . an online mapping service,"

[parcel_of_rogues]

Delorme products also seem to love dirt roads on the default settings.

[Londo Molari]

Yep, rub some green on it and it feels all better.

[snarks_when_bored]

The name "Bear Camp Road" should have given Kim pause. He paid for his mistake with his life. Very sad, indeed.

[Justice4Reds]

Agreed. This isn't a news story, it's just BS speculation. Did the author get lost using YahooMaps one time?

[Londo Molari]

Yeah, and the online maping service may have told them to ignore snow warning signs and to leave common sense at home.

[cripplecreek]

Leave it to yahaw or gurgle to turn a 10 mile trip into 50.

[tx_eggman]

It sucks that this family died, but to not have any awareness of the conditions is just plain stupid

Wife and kids were rescued form the car, dad went looking for help and died.

[r9etb]

It hasn't been definitively confirmed which online mapping service, if any, the Kim family used for directions.

.... how far down in the article?

[TommyDale]

Google's stock price hasn't been hit yet GOOG is up 1%

[RightWhale]

Much too much is expected from maps.

[Repeal The 17th]

"Kate, Kate, should I turn left or right up ahead?"

[LibWhacker]

From an article yesterday:

However, it wasn't clear whose map the couple used. The 2005-2007 state highway map distributed by the Oregon Department of Transportation has a warning in red print, inside a red box: "This route closed in winter." A Rand-McNally map did not have a similar warning.

I'm no lawyer but I've never heard of anyone successfully suing Rand-McNally for an omission like that. I don't know where you draw the line, but at some point a person has to bear responsibility for his own actions and/or poor judgement (not that I don't have any sympathy for poor guy and his wife and kids).

[Hegemony Cricket]

Absolutely correct!

[jdm]

Faulty online mapping linked to wrong turn disaster

This makes his death kind of ironic, unfortunately.