Great news that they have been located!

Now, will the relatives of the elderly couple PLEASE convince them to buy a cell phone (or make them a present) so that they can be contacted by worried relatives when travelling and save us all many hours of police efforts and money spent on that?

Have it plugged in and switched on when travelling. It may save your lives and us a lot of unnecessary concern.

Common sense.

How do people DO that?
Don't they ever consider that someone may be looking for them?
To say nothing of the services that swing into acion when someone goes missing like this!

I'm Glad they are OK and all is fine
But on the lighter side Isn't there a commercial on TV something like this?
Cheers

Seniors took a wrong turn...

They should be made to pay the bill for the highway search that was done. The RCMP is busy enough without having to look for idiots.

We don't know the circumstances so don't judge them. I'm thrilled that they are ok. And what do you think people did before there were cell phones? Cell phones are just an expensive pain in the you-know-what. I used to have one and never again.

"Hey sweetie, I'm famished already. Let's grab a quick pint to wash down a burger and fries, let's call it our last meal before the horrid cooking of our dear loved ones."

One pint leads to another, and alas then it has become too dark to drive in this weather with all seasons. Woe is me so we'll pummel another few to completely abolish all memory of the incident.

I feel sorrow for the children and relatives of this elderly couple. To not call is absolutely disrespectful. To start a long journey 3 hours before nightfall in itself is a recipe for disaster.

Nobody needs a cell phone, any phone would have worked.

sixities is elderly?

Sure glad they are safe & sound, and you can bet after this they'll be checking in when they go across town for groceries, never mind how often they'll be calling in on road trips.

I'm amazed at the people here making judgments with no knowledge of what happened. Maybe their relatives in Kamloops misunderstood their plans. Maybe they had no reason to believe that anyone would be keeping track of them and so felt no qualms about changing their plans and not telling the people in Kamloops. Maybe they even called and left a message but for some reason it didn't get through. From the news story we simply don't know.

billposer, read the two stories again!!

"Nobody needs a cell phone."

Yeah! Supposing one goes off the road accidentally, ends up 30 feet down a ravine in deep snow. Injured, one can't even get a door open, trapped in a banged up vehicle.

No cell phone, game over! Yes, nobody needs a cell phone.

Newsflash: They died of hypothermia!

Read the two stories? I did. There is no information in the first. I don't even know who the family members are. Son? Daughter? Brother? Sister? Cousin? I don't know how close they were. Do they know each other well enough to know that the two are independent souls? Did they even know they were going through the Rogers Pass or was it just their assumption?

From the story above, we do not even know why they ended up in Vernon. Alternate route to stay south and out of the weather as may have been suggested by radio reports?

As far as a cell phone goes? Maybe the "family" in Calgary did not have a voice mail system and were out of the house or on the phone on the several occasions the travelling couple tried to make contact.

Did you notice in the story above that the police received a call telling them where the couple is. Says nothing whether the call was from the family in Calgary who had finally been connected with by the travelling couple or that the call was from the motel when they checked in and the hotel clerk noticed that this was the couple police were looking for.

Again, it is interesting to observe all the unsubstantiated conclusions people reach based on very little information. They invariably fill in pieces from their life experiences and the posted suppositions become fact on which other posts are then built.

"Ronald and Wendy Ouellette left Kamloops at 1pm in a charcoal coloured Ford Escape and were expected to arrive in Calgary at around 9pm."

A fairly simple statement indicating the couple had made prior travel arrangements with the family in Calgary. Hardly relevant what form of relationship there is, I would assume it is common courtesy to inform an awaiting party of your progress or delay, especially at this time of year. Assumption: It took until Thursday or Friday for the couple to be possibly officially considered as missing. If they had in fact went off road, the consequences could have been drastic. Seems that sometime Friday that had been discovered, possibly early Saturday(Assumption).

Did we not travel before the advent of the cellphone? Payphones aren't completely extinct yet, neither are other helpful citizens. Having no coverage or a dead battery helps very little.

"A missing Prince George couple who were reported missing on a road trip between Kamloops and Calgary have turned up safe and sound in Vernon."

Safe and sound usually interprets to "they are fine."

" Police say they received a call saying they had turned up in Vernon with no other details."

3 days to arrive in Vernon. No wonder they are embarrased to offer details.

"What we have here is a failure to communicate!!"

runner...why are we calling them elderly....hope you don't get lost on your way to coffee :)

They got lost because whoever was driving left their blinker on and kept making wrong turns. ;)

"A fairly simple statement indicating the couple had made prior travel arrangements with the family in Calgary."

It does?

Couple calling "family" in Calgary:

"Hi. Ron here. Is your dad there?"

"nope"

"your mom?"

"No, they left this morning. Haven't seen them all day."

"can you leave a message from me?"

"sure"

"We are leaving Kamloops today to come to Calgary. We could be there by later tonight depending on the weather. We might also stop by Uncle Rob's on the way."

"cool"

"bye Larry"

"this is James"

"sorry James. bye."

Then the parents get home later that night.

James had gone to a friend.

On Wednesday James got up at lunch. Eventually he told his mom that someone called yesterday. Who? One of his uncles he thinks. Which one? Ron? Yup, I think so.

You fill in the rest ..... many people potentially in the communications chain. We haven't got a clue where the links were broken. One can make up 100s of stories that would fit the news reports.

Now, will the relatives of the elderly couple PLEASE convince them to buy a cell phone (or make them a present) so that they can be contacted by worried relatives when travelling and save us all many hours of police efforts and money spent on that?


Anyone that has travelled more than 30 kms out of town let alone through the Rogers Pass or any other pass for that matter knows that a cell phone is a useless accessory.


Yeah! Supposing one goes off the road accidentally, ends up 30 feet down a ravine in deep snow. Injured, one can't even get a door open, trapped in a banged up vehicle.

No cell phone, game over! Yes, nobody needs a cell phone.

Newsflash: They died of hypothermia!

If you are putting your life in the hands of a cell phone goodluck man. You are obviously a member of this generation were life revolves around a cell phone and have a misconception that it will save your life if in a crash more than 30 or 40 kms out of town. Here is a news flash for you a cell phone does not take place of common sense as you would have others or others have you believe. As is common on here those with the most to say know the least.

First of all we only know one side of the story as reported by 250 and that is from the couples family.
Nobody but those that called them in as missing or the couple themselves knows what the truth about this is so why argue about it.
You can all speculate about what happened, but with your limited knowledge about the absolute truth as to what really happened, why waste your time?

Thanks for making the point lostfaith. I provided a few plausible alternate scenarios hoping people would reach your conclusion by example.

Apester is, of course, also right on. Too many forget we are in mountain and low population base region where cells are few and far between. This is not the prairies.

Thus, the assumption made by many on here that there was a clear "flight plan" filed with a responsible family member who would take it upon him/herself to make sure to act when the planned arrival did not happen within a reasonable number of hours, is actually one of the safety measures that should be taken, especially in winter and night time conditions.

The question still remains, will we ever learn what happened here so that there might be a lesson it it for us?

As others have noted, this isn't the US. A cell phone is pretty much useless outside of a major centre.

Buy a GM and use Onstar.