Mail Tribune
GALICE — A tractor-trailer owned by a Nebraska trucking firm got stuck and caught fire on the eastern end of the remote Bear Camp Road early Tuesday morning.
The incident marks the second time this month that a truck owned by Omaha-based Werner Enterprises, Inc. became bogged down on the narrow mountain road, and suggests the Bear Camp Road is still being mistaken as a main road to the coast by people who have no knowledge of the area.
The route gained notoriety late last year after the Kim family of San Francisco became lost when they mistakenly took a logging spur road while attempting to drive to the coast from Interstate 5. James Kim died of exposure after leaving the family car to seek help, but his wife, Kati, and their two young daughters were rescued on Dec. 4.
"You would think when they got up there and saw what it was like, they would quit going any farther," said Bill Leonard, manager of Caveman Towing Service.
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"You would think they would quit going up there," Leonard reiterated.
The incident began at 2:30 a.m. when a Josephine County Sheriff's deputy and Rural/Metro Fire Department responded to a truck fire reported in the Galice Creek area of Bear Camp Road, according to Sheriff Gil Gilbertson.
Driver Ricky Johnson, 44, of Portland, told the deputy that his 53-foot trailer was too long to travel Highway 199 so his dispatch center told him to take Bear Camp Road to get from Interstate 5 to Brookings, Gilbertson said. When the driver realized the road was too winding and narrow, he attempted to back up and got stuck, the sheriff said.
"The deputy called Werner and advised them of the perils of that road," Gilbertson said. "They said they would remove the road from their (route) list."
Gilbertson said it wasn't feasible for the department to contact all the trucking companies in the country about the road's hazards nor all the motorists who may try to use it in winter.
While the winding road is passable during the summer months, it is blocked by snow throughout much of the winter well into spring.
Following the Kim search, the sheriff's department contacted the Rand McNally map company and advised them of the hazards posed by the road during the wet season, Gilbertson said.
"A lot of maps project it to be a travelable road and it's not," he said, referring to winter and spring when it is blocked by snow.
The partially-burned truck was towed to Grants Pass late Tuesday afternoon, Leonard said.
