First of all let me say that some of my earlier comments were inflammatory and that discussions about hummers off-topic. I allowed myself to get riled up by other people's comments who seemed to think that as a hummer driver, they should be going in more dangerous and otherwise off-limit areas. As a result, I took the extreme opposite position.
Having said that, I think that Shaggy as wonderfully expressed my more true (and level) sentiments on this topic. His firsthand knowledge of both the area and rangers is very insightful. Ruining one or more ranger's life (have some have expressed) over the action's of one person who was clearly breaking the rules and taking several unnecessary life risks on their own would be an injustice. More likely is that the rules will be changed for all ORVs and everyone will be punished.
The rangers searched the area as the past experience would have guided them to do. People are also assuming that the rangers had access to GPS, but that is also speculation (just as I speculated that the driver also had a GPS display).
In the transcripts that I've read, I have never seen where the 911 operator even suggested they had latitude longitude coordinates, just "coordinates". Maybe OnStar should have called the Park directly instead of going through an intermediary.
For those of you paying money for OnStar and perceive this to be an infallible safety net, well, I think this incident shows that it is not.
There are many gaps in the story. Initially I heard that the airbags were not deployed and then a month later, that they were. I don't understand how there could be any confusion over that given the OnStar commercials that I've seen.
After the hummer was recovered, the front windshield and driver's side door were both missing. The back of the hummer was bent in like a V. I am assuming that those damages were done during the roll. Given how many people drive on the beach (and some in 4x4 Vans), I just have a hard time imagining what natural conditions could have existed that would have caused a hummer of all vehicles to roll and suffer that much damage. Hence the speculation that the driver was acting in a way that was way beyond normal beach driving.
I understand that the inside cab of the hummer was also greatly water damaged, suggesting that it had been in deep water for a lengthy amount of time. If the vehicle ended in the ocean in or beyond the breakers as a result of the accident, I am also not surprised that the rangers would have missed it, even if they had driven right by it. In my naivety, I would be shining my spotlight (it was dark, after all) from the water's edge to the dunes. But, I am speculating.
If the rangers did a full out search and rescue for every call they get to the level that would have been necessary in this case, well, who is going to pay for it (I'm imagining at least one, if not several, helicopters and multiple trucks in the search)? As a taxpayer, I certainly don't. That may sound cold, but those searches cost lots of money quickly. The $70/year entrance fee certainly doesn't cover it either. The coast guard getting a call about a boat in distress is a much more obvious need of a full search than someone stuck in the sand (which is where the ORV should have been, in the sand). Given that others don't cancel a search after being "rescued" makes this even more problematic.
I've gone out on the beach in the winter and didn't have OnStar or a cellphone. I was fully aware that if I even got stuck, no one would be the wiser until the next day when I didn't return and I would be responsible for getting my own self out. As a result, I tended to drive more carefully (not that I still didn't do some stupid things). You take risks and accept the consequences. Adam might have been perfectly fine with that.
I also don't know the facts and could be completely off-base (about the accident itself).
And despite one person's claim, I am not against commercialism and people should be able to spend their money on better things. That doesn't mean we can do anythng we want. Just because I can afford a TeraWatt Bass Thumper for my car, doesn't mean I should be playing it all full blast while next to other people. With owning something also comes responsibility.
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