Land of the Lost
Seattlest once got lost in Kmart while our mom was trying to buy our brother clothing, and we're still reeling from it one week later. So we're curious about a story that the Times has picked up from the AP, reporting that some national parks and search and rescue organizations will be testing out a radio transmitter system originally designed to help law enforcement types find disabled people (primarily those with Alzheimer's or autism) who wander away from home. The theory goes that it might assist in searching for lost hikers/climbers/etc.
While the parks people fear such technology would embolden the outdoors wild and crazies (hey just push the magic button and poof, you're rescued!) and "replace common sense", we're not so sure this will get adopted all that quickly. From an article back in 2003 looking at Boston police using the "Project Lifesaver" system, we found that there's training specific to the devices that is required, plus a set of 3 receivers with antennae and 25 transmitters costs over $23,000. This being another costly method that requires "special" training, we're not sure most S&R groups will be chomping at the bit to get their hands or their St. Bernards on it. Plus, the range is under a mile when on foot, and about 3-5 miles in the air. Basically, you need to know from where someone went missing and widen your search from that point (works great if someone just wandered away from home, not so much for backpackers lost for a week). Also, if the weather sucks, even with a signal there might not be anything that could be done, as was the case with the climbers lost on Mt. Hood in December.
We also suspect (though this isn't mentioned in the article) that rescue organizations would be reticent to use something like this that could putatively inspire high expectations from users and/or their family, and thus theoretically open them up to lawsuits if a rescue didn't succeed (they were wearing a transmitter, why couldn't you find them?). Ridiculous? Yes, and in our mind unheard of until the world met James Kim's dad.
Image from Found Magazine.
