Troopers say missing truck driver found on snowy mountain road followed GPS
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) has provided additional details about a stranded truck driver who was rescued after two days of being stuck on a mountain road.
The CHP released new information about a missing truck driver who spent two days stranded in Shasta County during a winter weather storm last week.
The CHP’s Northern Division Air Operations describes the circumstances leading to the rescue:
On January 16, 2020, at approximately 3:00 PM, a gold Volvo tractor with a white trailer was reported overdue by their company. The driver was supposed to be at a specified location at 6:00 AM that day and never arrived. GPS locations from the tractor placed the vehicle on Big Bend Rd. west of SR-299. Due to inclement weather and poor roadway conditions no aircraft or vehicles were able to conduct a thorough search of the area. On January 18, 2020, at approximately 8:00 AM, the weather improved and Air 11 responded to the area to search for the vehicle. After approximately 1 hour, Air 11 located the vehicle on Summit Lake Road, approximately 20 miles from the last GPS postition. Air 11 made contact with the driver via the public address speaker and he appeared uninjured. H-14 responded to the scene and landed to rescue the driver. H-14’s crew contacted the driver confirming he was uninjured. H-14 transported the driver back to Benton Airpark. The driver was assisted with finding a hot meal and a ride to a local hotel.
CHP — Donner Pass also chimed in via Facebook and used the missing driver’s experience as a reminder not to rely too heavily on your GPS device.
They wrote:
CHP – Northern Division Air Operations recently rescued a truck driver on a snowy mountain road. Reminder……don’t follow your GPS trying to go around a road closure. You could end up like this guy or worse (dead). Also the bill from the towing company is going to be ridiculous.