I will follow this GPS to the end of the earth....

[CoastRange57]

Now first off, I am glad the young man is safe and back with his family. This has turned out badly for a lot of other people.

Now with those disclaimers in place, I will simply say...WTF were you thinking ?? Lets look at the factors in play here...

22 years old, not much over the road experience or probably some regional driving. Younger millennial, so we know that he trusts electronic devices and that they could never be wrong.

At what point in time did some doubt come into your mind that this might not be the best road to take a 52 footer ?? When it went from pavement to gravel ?? When you could not make the corners ??

Smaller trucking company so I doubt they had any kind of training that might impart the need to glance at a paper map or even an electronic map and read the legend ??

When you finally reached a point where your truck is hung up, and you decide you have to hoof it out...why...why..why in the hell do you walk away from the truck and not go back the way whence you came ?? A known quantity ????? Huh ??

When I had my trucks and was all over the northwest, I got on Google Earth and looked at my destination, the general route there and any complications along the way. Of course, I had been driving CMVs since I was 19 years old and have been on virtually every major highway and secondary two lane routes in a 3 state area here in the northwest.

The trucking companies better get somebody to write some code here that prevents this..my drone app has no fly areas that will not allow the drone to even start if you are in those GPS borders.

I have state maps in my vehicles, and I also carry a sectional paper map in my flight bag as well, even though I have all the apps on my tablets. I just do not trust electronics to not have back ups or some level or redundancy.

On Saturday, April 28, 2018, at approximately 10:15 AM, OSP was notified that the missing CMV driver, Jacob Aaron CARTWRIGHT had returned home and was en-route to Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande for medical evaluation. An OSP Senior Trooper from the La Grande Area Command responded to the hospital and positively identified CARTWRIGHT.

CARTWRIGHT informed the Trooper that he had encountered snow and mud on the roadway and his vehicle combination began to slide toward a steep embankment. CARTWRIGHT was unsure of the name of the location where this occurred but provided information that a road that he had traveled onto began with a "G." Forest Service Road 51, which is also known as Grande Ronde River Road, is located approximately 1.5 miles east of the area of the last known GPS location the night that CARTWRIGHT went missing. Forest Service Road 51 travels south of State Route 244 near milepost 35. With this new information, an OSP aircraft was deployed to that area and located the semi-truck and trailer at 10:59 AM. Two troopers from the La Grande Area Command arrived to the site at 11:58 AM. The location the vehicle was located was approximately 21 miles from the last known GPS location.



After CARTWRIGHT's vehicle became unsafe to move, he departed the area on foot traveling along Forest Service Road 5125 and away from the direction that had initially approached from. CARTWRIGHT continued to walk in a northeast direction in what is estimated to be in excess of 14 miles before emerging from the forest at the 270 interchange of Interstate 84 approximately 9 miles south of La Grande. This route of travel from his vehicle was at elevations from approximately 5000 feet to 6500 feet as he crossed snowy mountain peaks and back down to Interstate 84. CARTWRIGHT was able to flag down an unidentified passing motorist who provided him with a ride to his home in La Grande.



The initial investigation has revealed CARTWRIGHT may have encountered a problem with his navigational GPS system and was routed off of State Route 244 onto Forest Service Road 51 where he traveled approximately 12.5 miles before turning onto Forest Service Road 5125. Mr. Cartwright traveled an additional 9 miles on Forest Service Road 5125 before his vehicle combination spun out and began to slide toward the steep embankment along the shoulder of the road. This area is a remote and mountainous location that has very limited, if any, cellular service.

OSP assisted the Union County Sheriff's Office and several concerned volunteers in the search to locate CARTWRIGHT. Any questions regarding the search and rescue operations should be directed to the Union County Sheriff's Office at (541) 963-1017.

Read More

 

[Stomper]

 

[CamoDeafie]

The boy is an idiot. he should have figured something was off with the gps when it told him to get off the highway into the woods; and he should have used CB radio(arent most tractor trailer rigs equipped with one?) to contact other truckers for assistance..

 

[JRuby]

I take at minimum one compass any time I use my gps for hunting with a good topo map. I trust but verify my navigational tools. It costs to be dumb. It has cost some their lives. Don't be dumb

 

[Camelfilter]

Meth?

 

[CoastRange57]

The boy is an idiot. he should have figured something was off with the gps when it told him to get off the highway into the woods; and he should have used CB radio(arent most tractor trailer rigs equipped with one?) to contact other truckers for assistance..

The CB may have not done him much good, pretty low power line of sight communication at best. I use tripcheck to look at roads all over Oregon, and see what the weather is like in Central Oregon several times a day. You can scroll in pretty close with that, but a paper map, even the most rudimentary one will show you what roads you can and cannot take a 52 foot trailer, 82,000 pound truck on. That boy needs a few runs with an old guy and pay the f attention to what he says.

 

[CamoDeafie]

I meant before he turned onto the forest road. had he stayed on the highway, and used a Cb to contact other drivers while figuring out his route......

Edit. Perhaps he was high on something?

 

[CoastRange57]

Meth?

Yeah...a lot to the story that does not add up in my opinion. Boy don't look like the sharpest stick in the pile, but just a lot don't make sense.

I did some work for a trucking company who had about 35 trucks running around the country. Several times the owner put me on a plane on a moments notice to go get his truck and load in the Midwest or somewhere because one of his ace drivers got popped for cocaine possession and was in jail. I had to get the truck take the load and then bring the truck back to Portland, with a load of course.

I believe meth gets out of your system fairly quick..so the time between when he was lost and then showed up and how he survived those nights out there is a bit strange.

 

[BaggerRyder]

I hunt over there and know that road very well. Once you get off highway 244 and onto 5125 you have to cross a small bridge that crosses the Grande Ronde. I would have known right then and there that I probably shouldn't be taking this route with a tractor trailer.

 

[EPS]

Idot this is the problem with the driver shortage they will hire anyone lol

 

[cigars]

Wow, just wow.

 

[Caveman Jim]

GPS sucks, even in cities!!!!

 

[EPS]

I use Google maps and it works pretty good but you have to know when to say wait a minute .
Something is wrong here .
Like when it tells you to drive into the ocean.
Or drive your semi truck up a logging road lol

 

[SA Shooter]

Talk about trying to pour some bleach into your own gene pool. Geez....

 

[Goosebrown]

Apparently he told SIRI to GFY earlier in the day...

He'll hath no fury...

 

[MilitantBEEMER]

No doubt it appears he made several major mistakes. That being said, I am thankful he made it home safe to his wife and kids. My prayers were answered.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

It ain't easy being perfect? Lol!

 

[Member 5605]

Considering some of the drivers I see at work; this guy would fit right in.

 

[Ruger Rich]

It ain't easy being perfect? Lol!

Yes, I know.

 

[Mark W.]

I read both the State Police report as well as the detailed report on a turckers site. The kid made his first mistake when he input the wrong address in the GPS unit. The second mistake was not having at least some basic idea where he was going so he would know the route given was incorrect. The third was ever turning off of pavement. He should know that was illegal as Oregon has length laws on virtually all roads. I drive a Dump Truck and Trailer 75' long and in my cab is a stack an 1" thick of permits allowing me to drive where we work. Just to get past the 60' rule.

I do not think meth had anything to do with this.

There are Truck specific GPS units. After a wild trip through the under belly of LA delievering Christmas Tree's following a TOMTOM one of the guys I work with bought one. His TOM TOM sent him in places only because of his 20 years of experiance with Dump trucks was he able to get himself out (LOTS OF BACKING UP)