Update: The Kims Used a Paper Map
As I noted in an update to my earlier post, the body of James Kim was found yesterday. But online maps or GPS navigation systems cannot be blamed for the Kim tragedy, as some have surmised (based on little more than James Kim’s techy occupation): the San Francisco Chronicle reports that they used a paper map. Indeed Bear Camp Road’s winter status is not always mentioned on paper maps: Mathew Ingram; Medford Mail Tribune. No mapping method has a monopoly on accuracy or error. Via Google Maps Mania.
Categories: Mapping Errors
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I live in a small community close to where these people got lost. Every year at least one family gets lost this time of year trying to get to the coast via Bear Camp Road. Fortunately, not all turned into such tragedy, but, more often than not, someone does die. It is just a shame that they cannot put a chain across these roads during the Winter months so that unsuspecting out-of-towners won’t try it. I truly hope that GPS maps and Google, etc., don’t have this as a viable alternative route to the two highways leading to the Coast from Roseburg or the Redwood Highway going to the Coast from Grants Pass. This road is passable in the Summer months, but not in the Winter. Most 4-wheelers won’t even attempt it. They need to read “not advisable in Winter Months.”
Belinda from Oregon | 12/07/2006 at 7:33 PM | #