Global Positioning Satellite Tries To Kill Family...

[Lord Jim]

Mother Walks 30 Miles to Save Her Family Stranded in the Snow Near the Grand Canyon

A mother said she walked 30 miles through the snow on Christmas Eve to get help for her family who was stranded in their car near the Grand Canyon.

Karen Klein, Eric Klein, and their 10-year-old son Isaac set out on a family trip to the Grand Canyon, using a GPS as their guide, when they wound up driving down a walking path and having their car get stuck in the mud.


Eric Klein had recently broken his back, so Karen Klein set out to seek help by flagging someone down on the main road or finding cell phone service, the family said in an interview with "Good Morning America" that aired today.

Karen Klein traversed approximately ten miles through three feet of snow when she noticed that the main highway had been closed. She then remembered another entrance to the park 14 miles away, and started walking in that direction, she told "GMA."

Eventually, it became dark and started snowing, she said. But she forced herself to stay awake throughout the night, eating twigs from an aspen tree and drinking melted snow.

"Your priorities definitely align very quickly," Karen Klein said of her survival journey. "I kept thinking, this isn’t how my life is supposed to end, no no no. My son needs his mother, my husband needs his wife. I am not letting my mother bury me. I can’t let this happen."

Klein said that through it all her family is what kept her going. "My instinct was to number one to save my family."

"Your instincts kick in," she said, "that you’re a mom, this is what you do, this is what you have to do for your family. That’s the number one priority."

"It wasn’t about staying alive for me," she said, "but it was about staying alive for everyone else."

She eventually found a cabin, which was actually a guard's shack that was closed for the season. She broke a window, crawled into the cabin and collapsed, after walking for approximately 36 hours.

"I think that people should realize that they have more strength within them than they think, whether it’s a mental strength or a physical strength, and to draw upon that and to not give up hope," Karen Klein said.

Meanwhile, her husband said he "knew something was wrong" when she didn't return for a couple of hours.

Eric Klein said that he and his son slept overnight in the car and the next morning he walked about 15 miles north until he got cell reception, and then he called 911.

"I am in the middle of the forest," Eric Klein said to the 911 operator. "We haven’t seen a human being in over 24 hours -- not a car, not a skier, not a hunter, nothing."

Emergency responders on snowmobiles were able to locate Eric Klein's car, and were then able to track Karen Klein at the cabin.

The Coconino County Sheriff's office said in a statement that Karen Klein had "walked approximately 26 miles since Thursday afternoon in search of help for herself, husband and son whose vehicle had become stuck on a forest service road."

The Kane County Sheriff's Office transported Eric and Isaac Klein to an ambulance and both received treatment for cold exposure, including frostbite. The Coconino County Sheriff's Office and the Kane County Sheriff's Office eventually found Karen Klein in the guard's shack and transported her to the hospital.

"This is a Christmas miracle," Jim Driscoll, the chief deputy for Coconino County told the Associated Press. "We were able to get a family back together for Christmas. It could have gone very bad very, very easily.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/mother-walks-3 ... d=44406163

[Joe Guy]

"using a GPS as their guide, when they wound up driving down a walking path and having their car get stuck in the mud."

"Your instincts kick in," she said....

She needs to have her instincts adjusted. They kicked in a little too late.

[Long Run]

Another GPS success story. People need to overlay their common sense on any GPS route.

[Burning Petard]

From what I have seen on tv news, their destination, the North Rim of The Canyon, was already closed for the winter. Bucket lists of things to do before you die are great ideas. To actually do them it might help to do a bit of preplanning research.

snailgate

[BoSoxGal]

Yeah these stories are rare because most people aren't so lacking in common sense. They ought really to be charged with criminal child endangerment, as much as a single black mother who leaves her kids home alone to go to work.

[Long Run]

Yeah these stories are rare because most people aren't so lacking in common sense.

The complete disaster stories from blindly following GPS are fairly rare, but they do seem to pop up several times per year. However, the general misuse/blindly following of the GPS is a daily thing, with people getting stuck in every kind of situation which strands their vehicle, but the people are able to easily get to safety.

[dales]

Use a map!

(Although I would assume since most today are chained to their GPS, map and chart-reading are sadly passé.)

[Crackpot]

I have frequently been steered wrong By GPS. Never to the point of being stranded tho. In the wether conditions I could understand mistaking a path for a road but by the same token WTF are they doing that sort of thing when they are obviously not prepared?

[Burning Petard]

Remember Map Quest? I used it to show my route from Bear Delaware to a small shop in North Philadelphia. I followed it carefully and it got me almost there--two blocks away and it said to go the wrong way on a one-way street. I looped around and found it. I never would have found the address with a AAA Phila City map. Then again, the 'never' was based on my personal map skills.

And printed maps ALWAYS had intentional errors. The practice was to protect copyright of the map maker. The only exception was the topo maps from the US geo survey. But they were usually old.

snailgate

[Guinevere]

The article didn't, say, but were they local or tourists from somewhere away? Many people don't know that the North Rim of the Canyon is at a higher elevation than the South Rim, and a completely different world. It's lovely, but its a forest (the Kaibab National Forest, to be precise) and close to wilderness, with fewer services than the South Rim. It's usually only open for about 6 months of the year because of the wildness and the weather.

ETA: The article says "a family trip" and she "remembered" a road, so it sounds like they were local-ish and should have known better.

[Big RR]

As I recall the North rim, there is only one main road leading up to it which goes through the national park toll gate (and after that it is still a long drive) from a small "town" called Jacob lake; if the park (and gate) was closed, perhaps there are some side roads that locals know, but I wouldn't trust using a GPS with them. Even the main road is not that easy to navigate, especially at night or if it was snow covered.

[Bicycle Bill]

A better headline for this thead might have been
"Blind Faith in Inexpensive Electronic Gizmo Almost Kills Family"

Now many people will say that they should have also used a map.  However, both maps and a GPS app on your smartphone are only tools and for a tool to be useful one must know how to use it correctly.  That holds true for any tool, whether it's a map, or a GPS, or a hammer, or a table saw.
And if you insist on using a tool incorrectly, no matter what kind of a tool, it can seriously injure or kill you.

-"BB"-

[Long Run]

Shane: A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.

[Bicycle Bill]

Shane: A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.

Guns are good; people are bad.
Got it.

-"BB"-

[Long Run]

Just a mash up of the movie quote thing with your

for a tool to be useful one must know how to use it correctly.  That holds true for any tool, whether it's a map, or a GPS, or a hammer, or a table saw.
And if you insist on using a tool incorrectly, no matter what kind of a tool, it can seriously injure or kill you.