[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,"

[snarks_when_bored]

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

[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.

[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?"

[jdm]

Faulty online mapping linked to wrong turn disaster

This makes his death kind of ironic, unfortunately.

[PeterFinn]

Any lawsuit on this would be frivolous. Mapping firms are not responsible for determining safe travel *conditions*. Evaluating travel conditions and your skills and your vehicle's capability to handle those conditions at any given speed are the individual's responsibility. This is why you can get a ticket for doing the speed limit in hazardous conditions that are unsafe for that speed - you're expected to know better.

No offense to the family, but Mr. Kim's reliance on technology would seem to have supplanted his common sense and good judgment.

[TruthWillWin]

I lived in that area until 2004 and have taken that route to the coast a few times in the summer. It is the shortest if not the fastest way to Gold Beach from Merlin or Grants Pass. The road starts off as 2 lane paved, then after about 5 or 6 miles it's one lane paved, then turns to a dirt road (that was 10 years ago, don't think it's changed).

From the turn off on the Merlin-Galice Rd (just south of Galice) the sign says about 65 miles to Gold Beach. It took me over 3 hours to get there but that was driving a P/U with a large cabover camper on the bed. My wife and stepdaughter went that way and about 8 years ago and it took over 2 1/2 hours. They took the back roads because stepdaugter was just starting to drive and wanted to go where not many cars would be. The longer route via 199 would have taken about 2 hours.

[pandoraou812]

I don't live in that area, but I do have enough common sense to let family know what route I will be taking. After this I would hope that road is blocked off for the winter. People should carry extra water, blankets and some kind of trail mix or food that will stay fresh in their cars. A regular cd can be used to flash for help too. And having flares in your car is a good idea . I heard this was in the area that family in the rv last year were snowbound in too. I don't like map quest as its always giving me a longer route to take. Prayers for the family. This is really a shame that this had to happen.

[A knight without armor]

"...while Google suggests a shortcut through roads that become dangerous in winter. "


Reminds me of the Donner party.

[Phsstpok]

When using the Yahoo Maps, MapQuest and Google Maps online services to plot directions from Grants Pass to Gold Beach, Yahoo and MapQuest both recommend taking the same, safer highway route, while Google suggests a shortcut through roads that become dangerous in winter.

I did this search on MapQuest and posted about it on 12/4 at 6:47 PM.  Contrary to this article it does you on either this road or another forest service road just like it, not a "safer highway route."  My post  and a few others along this line generated a couple replies because I asked the question as to whether or not MapQuest might have any liability if, in fact, the family had gotten these instructions from them.  Do you suppose MapQuest got word of this and changed their recommendation for this route to cover this up?

[TruthWillWin]

When using the Yahoo Maps, MapQuest and Google Maps online services to plot directions from Grants Pass to Gold Beach, Yahoo and MapQuest both recommend taking the same, safer highway route, while Google suggests a shortcut through roads that become dangerous in winter.

Not accurate for the searches I just did. Yahoo was the only map service that had the correct route to take, Grants Pass to Gold Beach via 199. All others including Google Earth, MSN Maps, and MapQuest sent you on the fatal trip that the Kims took. Mapquest did have a disclaimer, MSN provided a link to a disclaimer, and Google Earth had no disclaimer.

[discostu]

Love how these people attach a bunch of speculation to a big story so that their name will come up on searches about the story and heighten their profile and maybe their paycheck. it's so sleazy.

All that aside these mapping services just use a simple maze pathing algorythm to find the most direct route from the entered point A to the entered point B. There's simply no way they could program in various seasonal travel adviseries and such, at least not and keep the services free. If you really want good directions for a cross country trip in teritory unfamiliar to you there's still only one good source, AAA, they work in the seasonal stuff and get the road construction schedules. AAA can do this because they charge.