Beware: Your GPS Could Kill You

[jim_dusa]

Beware: Your GPS Could Kill You

In this modern age, we rely on computers more and more. Google maps and other online maps give us directions. GPS systems guide us turn by turn to our destination.

How can the maps that look so good, lead us to make foolish mistakes? Almost every week someone pulls into the dirt road that leads to my house thinking they’re on the road to some location a mile away. The road is marked private with no exit, but they don’t believe the sign. Sometimes they will try driving past the end of the road and straight into the brush, just because their GPS says the road is there.

So what is the point of this story… well, let’s move the location to Death Valley. Unless you have topo map software in your GPS unit, it will only show you the main roads. Your GPS device will say something like “You are in a area where no turn by turn information is available. Follow the route on a map.”

This is where it gets interesting. The GPS knows where you are, and where you want to go. So it will give you the shortest route. Remember that in the desert, the standard GPS may not know where the roads are, or even if there are any roads. By following its route, you may be taken off the road that you’re on, and directed to make your own road. If you are in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, you may even be able to do that for a while.

When you come to a big drop off, do you continue, if the GPS tells you to go right over it?

Remember this:

A GPS when used in the desert, may be plotting the shortest distance, not the best route for a car.

Driving a Jeep or other 4-wheel drive vehicles does not make you an expert off road driver.

There is no cell service in most remote desert areas.

The summer is not the best time to be camping in the desert.

You may be wondering why I have taken the time to write this. Have you seen this article?

Boy 11 dies in the desert. They left Las Vegas Aug. 1, but on the way to Death Valley, their Jeep suffered a flat tire. They replaced the tire and continued into the desert. Police said the two had no maps, only a GPS device.

Eventually the Jeep became stuck in the sand in an area that did not have cell phone service. http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/20322147/detail.html


Do you have any interesting GPS stories?

[Desert Cruiser]

2 years ago while out looking for creatures at night we ran into an Indian Reservation Game & Fish officer that was looking for a vehicle with 3 passengers that was stuck in a wash. When asked what wash they were in, they only knew that they were on the Barry Oldfield Rd. This road is like a super highway for the most part, then as it gets back near the Cargo Muchacho mts. and it enters a wash on the GPS -- Picacho Wash! Now in this in this day and time the road goes across the wash and no longer goes down it for 2 miles. The wash is passable, but not by cars. We went looking for the stranded motorist and after a 1 1/2 hour search we found them buried to the frame in a new Cadillac four door luxury sedan. When asked how they got there -- they were following the Barry Oldfield road and their GPS told them to go down the wash to get home --- that was at 12:00 noon. When we found them it was 12:30 at night! Boy were they glad we had water with us and that we found them. Does this sound like what you described?

Don....

[trebblekidd]

That is so scary! I don't have a gps, I still use google maps tho. I'm scared now. What is the safest way to travel??

[Desert Cruiser]

I don't think scared is the right term. Cautious might be more like it. We use a GPS all the time, but you also have to use common sense and sometimes that means getting out and walking to see what the actual conditions are like. Common sense is probably best thing to use. Topos are great. We've used to GPS to get into areas then to find our way back out.

Don....

[yuccahead]

I'm a total advocate for leaving all the electronic behind when you head into the backcountry. Unfortunatley, the computer generation mold their entire lives around these things. People walk around all day with their faces staring at a cell phone, thumbs busily sending a text, ears plugged up with an iPod, or following a GPS instead of looking around for obvious visual clues about where you are.
That these morons get lost, injured or end up dead is no surprise to me.

[blackturtle.us]

Sorry, but I gotta disagree with the premise of the article at the beginning of this thread. While lack of common sense might kill you, the GPS just provides information and it's up to the user to properly contextualize that information. The lady who got stranded in the desert made a long list of mistakes - and yes, she paid dearly for her mistakes. I'm going to assume that all her mistakes were honest, but to be honest it's hard to imagine how a person could make that many really dumb mistakes. It almost seems that there was an agenda... not that a twenty-eight-year-old woman would ever consider an eleven-year-old son to be a liability. But the autopsy came back and the judgment was made that no foul play was involved and so I guess it's reasonable to assume that the lady just made about ten really dumb, bone-headed mistakes that resulted in the death of her son...

[Desert Cruiser]

I agree with some of the above --- I never use a cell phone while driving, and I never text message anyone, it's not even available on my $ 60 a year phone. Only turn it on when we head out somewhere, for an emergency.

I think the analogy I posted above about the guys stranded in their car pretty much reinforces what the original poster put in here. It not only can but does happen. Now you may be experienced in desert travel, but I'm sure he was aiming toward an audience of beginners and people not used to desert travel that would depend too much on a GPS.

Oh and by the way just the fact that your sitting at your computer reading this and answering it tells me your also into the wonderful world of technology -- like it or not.

Don....

[yuccahead]

Oh and by the way just the fact that your sitting at your computer reading this and answering it tells me your also into the wonderful world of technology -- like it or not.

That arrogant statement has nothing to do with putting your life on the line with some portable piece of electronics.
Just last week here in Moab a couple from BC, Canada, ages 62 & 60, took a hike with their dog up on Poison Spider Mesa. The hi was 101 that day and the trails up there are 4x4 and mtn. bike trails, easy to follow with maps and guidebooks of the area sold in every shop in town. At 2:15 they were lost and running low on water. Being that high up on a mesa they had cell service and called the Sherriff for info to get down. The sherriff told them the closest and easiest route back to the highway. An hour later they called back, their dog had collapsed, they were out of water and they were still lost. A rescue helicopter was dispatched to get these two off of the mesa. Even with a cell phone and verbal directions out these two couldn't save their own lives. Their dog died on the mesa.

[Desert Cruiser]

Yuccahead it has everything to do with what this post was about. Like it or not everyone today (with a very few exceptions) is using technology to better their enjoyment of the outdoors. And GPS is one of those. I was trying to show beginners that common sense was necessary to navigate safely in some desert situations. And the people that lost their dog, that's a terrible shame. Did you read above where we went and found the people that were lost? I think your term arrogant is a little strong? Just trying to help people that aren't familiar with travel in the desert.

Don....

[LeeVW]

Here's how I use my GPS:

I buy all the paper topo maps I will need for the area I will be exploring. My collection is getting rather large, but it's good to have them. On a typical adventure, I will have between 5 and 12 maps onhand.

I then go over each map and mark specific things like intersections, mines, cabins, or other points of interest. I just mark them A, B, etc.. I then enter the coordinates into the software that talks to the GPS. I only use a hand held unit. This is a time-consuming process, but you only have to do it once for each map.

Before each trip, I upload all those coordinates to the GPS. Actually, I upload them to both of my GPS units. One has maps, the other does not. It's good to have a backup!

Out on the trail, I set the GPS to point to each intersection or point of interest and it shows me the direction to head and how far to go. When the GPS says we are getting close, we start looking. Once there, I plug in the next waypoint.

This method has me looking at the paper maps to figure out which roads to use and where everything is. The GPS merely tells me when I am getting close to where I want to be. There are still times when I'm not exactly sure where I am in relation to the map, and that's when we have to use our brains and figure it out. I like it this way, as it keeps my navigation skills intact.

The moral to my story? YOU can decide how much you want to rely on technology. In the desert, I prefer to keep my reliance to a minimum.

Lee