I was wondering if he could have fashioned a hat out of the upholstery or carpet and some wire from the engine bay. I was also wondering if he could have fashioned galoshes from the floor/cargo mats or the weatherproofing in the fender wells. Could he have sucessfully used wheel bearing grease as a water barrier on the feet, legs, and face? Maybe he could have burned every flammable bit of that car instead of just the tires to create as black a signal fire as possible?
Thoughts?
My most immediate thought is that before someone decides to cannibalize their car, they have to first recognize that they're in a serious survival situation. My readings on the subject suggest that people often downplay the seriousness of their situation until it's way too late. The delay between
being in a survival situation and
knowing that you're in a survival situation can get you killed.
Consider our wayward driver. He somehow got lost, went down the wrong road and got stuck far enough from the freeway for it to matter. He's already shown himself to not be particularly aware of his worsening condition. As many people have noted, why didn't he just turn around and go back to the freeway before he got stuck miles and miles up some mountain road?
At this point, I have no doubt that the fellow thought himself inconvenienced. He probably tried the cellphone. No service. Did he try text messaging? He should have because often times text messages will go through even when voice will not. Then he might have gotten his family comfortable and decided to simply wait for another motorist, perhaps a snowplow, to come along.
How much food and water did he have at that point? How warm were his clothes? And at what point did the rigours of his situation start to erode his (already questionable) judgement?
I raise these questions because it seems to me that it takes a certain mental aclarity, not to mention a recognized need for creative problem solving, to start cannibalizing your car for shelter- and clothing- making materials. It may be that by the time the fellow realized how bad his situation was, he was too far gone to think his way out of the problem.
My understanding is the guy was on a mountain road, covered with snow, and no doubt surrounded by trees. If it was me, I'd be building a debris hut, or a snow cave, almost immediately, and burning oil from my engine block by way of sending up a signal as soon as it was light enough out for the signal to be seen. And then I'd leave my family only when it was a choice between walk out or starve to death. He'd only been at it a week, so starving was probably not yet a threat, especially considering the good shape that his wife and children were found in.
No doubt a wife with two small children, one an infant, played a part in his decision to try to hike out. Sometimes it is the external stresses of the situation -- a complaining partner, a deadline to 'get home' that you think you MUST meet, fear of the darkness, who knows? -- that pushes people to make a bad decision.
But cannibalizing your car, taking it apart for survival purposes, wow, that's a real admission that you're in deep soup. To do that, you're right there facing the fearful situation you're in head-on. You're looking into a real abyss when you start to take your car apart in order to survive. I believe it is a rare person who will come to that decision while he still has sufficient wits about him for it to do him any good.
