Maybe, but one should never leave a road for wilderness if one hopes to be rescued.
I doubt the guy had any survival training. I've been on a NOLS course years ago so I have some experience in what to do and not to do regarding wilderness survival, but a lot of city folks just react in emergency situations - NOLS taught that the first thing you should do in an emergency is sit down and smoke a cigarette so you can get your head back on straight.