Death by GPS.

There have also been cases of people dying inn the winter on West Coast mountain roads when they tried to take short cuts on roads that aren't kept open. They get stuck in an area with no cellphone service and freeze to death.

I've read of two cases like that in Oregon. They have lots of beautiful back country that can kill you if you are ignorant.

It's dumb to stake your life on a GPS with no plan B in the first place, but to go ahead and get stuck in the snow on an isolated road is the crowning touch.

A GPS is a great tool but it won't think for you.

P.S. I also have a strong sense of direction. Unfortunately, sometimes it's wrong.

 

People have been dying in the backcountry for all of recorded history. 'Modern' toys, of whatever era, have never been a good substitute for old fashioned survival sense and skills and preparation.

Cell phones have been increasingly replacing so-call 'ten essentials' for a long time, among novices unaware that much of the North American wilderness has no cell service, and the best places won't get it without changes to the Wilderness Act. For a while some of them were also carrying a second toy, a GPS, but those two toys are now merging back to one.

 

People with modern toys who would have never considered going off the beaten track are going off the beaten track.

In fairness, GPS use probably saves many times more more people who go where they aren't qualified to go than it lures to their death.

 

Are you referring to James Kim found deceased - CNET News and Who's to blame for James Kim's death? - San Francisco - Salon.com

 

The same applies to numerous different modern things in different eras.

GPS. Cell phones. GoreTex. Snowshoes & skis. Cross-continent railroads, each promoting different National Parks.

And cars. Especially cars.

This is quite likely true. Despite the increasing population, I'm not aware of any rise in the death rate in the backcountry. Lots of people died in the old days too, but the regional news normally didn't put them in the headlines.

 

On the note of James Kim, there's a 20/20 2 hour episode airing on their story/ordeal.

I think you can watch it online at Watch '20/20' Friday Nights at 10 p.m. - ABC News.

 

So I've got this Garmin GPS and I'm taking the long way around the NE corner of Death Valley National Monument, through the Bristlecone pine country, with the ultimate goal of winding up on I395. I've told the GPS to take me home.

So I get to a wide spot in the road called Fish Lake, where there's a T intersection, and the Garmin says go left. (It's algorithm is set to find the shortest route.) I have maps, but not one that shows the corner of Nevada/California where the next turn is. They do show me that it's all state highways to Big Pine in the other direction.

The Garmin will tell you what the next stage of the route is, but not until you get fairly close to it. At Fish Lake I am apparently not close enough.

I turn left and start driving up the 2-lane blacktop. After about 15 miles, I look down at the Garmin and the inset that shows the next intersection has changed. Now it says something like "20 miles to "gravel road."

In my younger days, I'd have said, "Oh. An adventure!"

I turned around.

But I still wonder what I missed.

 

This evening, we pulled onto I-5 North, and had to maneuver around a car that had their GPS unit suction cupped to the windshield. Not sure how they saw out the windshield past it (could have been the issue), as it was dark out, and their GPS was on as full bright as a computer screen -- right in the driver's face! That had to impair their vision. It was impairing mine, and I was trying to pass them!

 

That was probably a rental car/gps.
IN the year i worked in rental cars i saw a ton of that (even if it was just the mark on the windshield from the suction cup)

I also saw a ton of people pull that suction cup out of the bag on our rental units, lick it, then stick it to the windshield. on a rental. thats been who knows where. Lick your personal suction cups.... not the public use ones at rental agencies!

 

This story was on the front page of Yahoo briefly today:
Do not rely solely on GPS for western U.S. travel: experts - Yahoo! News

 

Some words of wisdom from the article

 

If you're really worried, get a COSPAS-SARSAT beacon.

TerraFixâ„¢ 406 GPS PLB

 

Death by stupidity. (GPS detained as a possible accomplice)

 

That's a nice thing about a six inch ground clearance. Keeps me from going to places I shouldn't

 

At least some GPS units have an automatic night mode (like the one I got my wife recently), and then it's whitish roads on a black background instead of the other way around. Helps a bit.

It doesn't always give the best route though, sometimes has you wander around instead of taking the direct route, we're not sure why that is. It's not on the bike setting, or the most fuel-efficient setting, etc. And occasionally the map and the actual roads don't match, apparently when roads have been built or rerouted but not updated on the maps yet. And sometimes maps just plain have mistakes on them (but this goes for paper maps too).

And if you do get a GPS, look for the live-traffic feature. For some reason that's hidden away, I only knew about it by doing internet research and then going into the store looking for a specific model. The featured model at the store with a very similar name was $10 cheaper but didn't have map updates and live traffic, and there wasn't anything in the displayed advertising that called out the differences, had to search the feature list on the actual box to determine that. (Oh, and Best Buy often has better prices online - get the price there, then go to the store and ask them to match their online price).

 

I have a terrible sense of direction, so my GPS was one of the best investments ever. I would be lost without it (pun intended). For road trips, we do have state (and other) maps we use in addition.

 

I have no GPS horror stories to tell, but everyone else seems to be blessed with a sense of direction.

I walked up California and Oregon in 1981, no map no compass, I was 'lost' in CA 17 times. Oregon trails were much better and I was lost in OR only once.

My brother, who has a much more liberal definition of lost, was only 'lost' twice in CA and never in OR or WA, mind you he had the map and compass.

I frequently visit businesses who have not yet opened, (and so have no signs) the GPS is very handy for that.

 

My Prius does not have GPS, but my Android phone does via Google Maps. Works great... I plug the DC adapter for the phone into the plug in the ARM rest, then plug the audio from the phone into the AUX input. The phone rests comfortably on the top cup holder (open) and the turn-by-turn directions are crisp and clear through the car audio system.

 

While this case doesn't mention GPS, it is another 'stranded in the mountains in winter weather' story. Unfortunately, while this man survived more than two months in the Oregon Cascades, discovery took nearly three months.
Crew finds body of man stuck in snow for months

PS. Subsequent stories confirm that he had no GPS or cellphone, and wasn't even lost. He had a transient lifestyle, traveling around in his truck, and became stuck at his campsite after a deep overnight snowfall trapped his chained-up truck. His food supply ran out after a month, but he still had water, fuel, and money. A major mystery is why he didn't walk to the nearby small town, 3 to 4 miles away. Snow too deep?