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Even just delaying the trip through the mountains until the daylight hours probably would have saved James' life.

Reading through these posts is like trying to understand the logic of a liberal - I just don't get it. Apparently, it's everyone else's fault except Kim's.

First, and foremost, you don't drive at night through the snow - even on an interstate. Hundreds of thousands of people from the Bay Area follow this general rule when going up to Tahoe to go skiing on I-80.

These are people who know the road, have done it before, and aren't traveling with small children. The ones who don't are hardcore teens & 20-somethings, yet, if they continue to pursue the sport as they get older and have families, they adopt the general sane rule.

To travel at night through snow and unknown terrain, even a marked major highway, is the height of irresponsibility. Sorry, someone had to say it.

Yeah Chuck that was a good one.

I am far from being liberal - you should have seen me back in the Lewinsky days on here.

To say people shouldn't drive at night in the snow...are you kidding me?

I suggest you really go back and read the article completely and understand the facts before you take comments out of context.

I think this is a case where emotions over take judgment. The fact is that there were plenty of poor choices made in this whole tragedy. To focus solely on those made by the rescuers is unfair to all involved.

The Kims made the choice to travel across the mountains without a full tank of gas. In fact they had so little that this is what prevented them from turning around. By the time they decided they needed to, they discovered they didn't have enough gas. According to OSP, Mrs. Kim said they stopped twice to remove rocks in their path, instead of determining that this wasn't the best route. They also drove by at least TWO signs saying that this road was impassable in the winter due to snow. And it was snowing while they were driving.

I don't know why they chose to continue on this obviously dangerous road. But it made sense to them. I assume that the rescuers also made choices that made sense at the time. Now it's pretty clear they weren't the best. There were mistakes made all around in this tragedy.

I agree. Many times I have explored back roads and even trails with my family, but only in good (warm) weather and with good maps. He was taking a huge chance which in summertime would not have been so dangerous.

But I can understand what must have been their thinking: "The map shows this as a viable route ... according to the map we're just a few miles from civilization ... surely just around the next bend things will begin to improve ..." Once I had made that first fatal mistake not to turn around, I must admit I would be tempted to go "just a little bit further" in hopes that the road would improve and I wouldn't have to backtrack all the way back.

I found this post on another blog...it seemed to say the things that needed to be said. A person by the name of Roy posted it.

Im not the type to shift blame or deny individual responsibility being paramount. And to me, it is still not clear that the majority of the blame lies with Mr. Kim. Need more facts. At this point I¡¯d tend to give most blame to the maps/mapmakers. Some of the supposed mistakes Mr. Kim made.

-Not gasing up? How do you know that? If he left the Denny¡¯s at 8 pm and stopped at 2 am, that means he had enough gas to drive 6 hours in mountain country then run the engine for 3 more days to stay warm. Sounds like a full tank to me. To suggest he was low on gas shortly after he left the interstate is an idiotic criticism.

-travelling in winter? Winter doesnt begin for several more weeks. he got lost 2 weeks ago. Do the math.

-taking an unfamiliar mountain road? 42 is also an unfamiliar mountain road for him. Why should he double back when his map shows an even shorter route? Several maps make no distinction between 42 and 23. What, he¡¯s expected to have said ¡°I can trust this map on 42 but its obviously wrong about 23¡å? No map, not google, mapquest or paper should give the same weight of line to forest service road 23 that they do a major state highway (42). Thats a blatant mistake¨Cand that more than anything may have led to this tragedy. Mr. Kim wasnt sitting in a car near Grants pass looking over his options only to decide he was going to take a treacherous, windy, barely travelled, washed out, icy, boulder strewn nightmare of a road. He saw a road drawn in a line given equal weight to other major state highways. Why dont you pull out maps from around the nation and find other examples of a one lane forest service road given equal weight to State highways.

-continuing to drive for miles at night in bad weather? My understandings is that when they came to the rocks on the road and the snow became heavier, they aborted their efforts to reach Gold Beach.

-ignored the signs? Maybe. Or maybe he didnt see them in the dark. Given the number of people killed or lost here over the years, there is obviousy a MAJOR problem with the States signage. The Black Bar Lodge owner talked about how ¡°countless¡± tourists end up at his lodge and he has to give them directions. Well, thats one hell of a detour from 23 and that tells me its very easy even the summer during daylight to end up on this logging road instead of 23.

To travel at night through snow and unknown terrain, even a marked major highway, is the height of irresponsibility. Sorry, someone had to say it.

Had you read my first post on this thread (#3), you would've seen that I did say it.