Faulty online mapping linked to wrong turn disaster

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Questionable directions given by online mapping services could have contributed to the death of James Kim, who perished while trying to save his stranded family.

Kim, 35, was driving home from a vacation with his wife, Kati, and daughters, four-year-old Penelope and seven-month-old Sabine, on November 25 when he took a wrong turn and they became lost in the wilderness in Oregon, in north-west US.

Kim left his family on Saturday to find help, but never returned. When searchers found his lifeless body yesterday, he had already walked 13 kilometres through rugged terrain, wearing only light clothing.

But Kim - undoubtedly tech-savvy given that he worked as a technology reporter for the online publisher CNET - may never have made that fateful wrong turn if he hadn't used the internet to look up directions for his journey, US media reports suggest.

According to Associated Press, drivers are advised not to take Bear Camp Road to Gold Beach in winter, the route taken by the Kims.

"Authorities say the cyber-savvy family may have plucked the route from Grants Pass to Gold Beach from an online mapping service, unaware of the elements," AP reported.

"Despite its impassable snowdrifts and single lane, Bear Camp Road is offered as the preferred route on some websites and on-board-directions software available on some new cars. And most of those have no business in those mountains in the winter."

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.

"It's [the route used by the Kim family] not a good way to go in winter conditions," Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson told journalists. "You're not going to make it."

It hasn't been definitively confirmed which online mapping service, if any, the Kim family used for directions.

Autopsy results are due today, and it is expected that they will show that Kim, weakened by a lack of food, eventually succumbed to hypothermia.

Kim's wife and daughters were rescued earlier this week, sustaining only minor injuries.

Since his body was recovered yesterday, video, audio and text tributes to Kim have flooded the web.

Yesterday, smh.com.au's story that reported on the finding of Kim's body was the website's most-read article, attracting over 100,000 page views.

Similarly, on MSNBC.com, the story received over 1 million page views by lunch time, and was also its top-rated story. On CNN.com, the story had received 755,000 page views by mid-afternoon, SFGate.com reports.


The website created to track the search effort, www.jamesandkati.com, is currently collecting donations for the Kim family.