Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

Google Maps

Google Maps has been forced to change a route in the Russian Far East after a young man, Sergei Ustinov, was tragically frozen to death and his friend, Vladislav Istomin, was found in serious condition.

The two 18-year-old friends wanted to make the journey between Yakutsk, capital of the Republic of Sakha, in eastern Siberia, and Madagan. 2,000 kilometers and 34 hours by car separate both cities. Despite the minus 50ºC in that area during these dates, the young people decided to make the trip in their Toyota Chaser.

Ustinov went to Google Maps to tell him which was the fastest route: it came out as recommended the Kolimá highway or Highway of the Bones. It was three hours faster than the Russian Yandex browser told him.

Google Maps

This road, as reported by official documents, is located in one of the coldest areas in the world, where the populations ofOimiakón and Tomtor, considered the coldest inhabited places on the planet, since they have temperatures of down to minus 71.2 ° C in the middle of winter.

In addition, local media assure that it is a road that has been in disuse since the 70s where there is practically nothing.

On the way, a stick from a tree struck the radiator of the car, leaving both young men lying in their vehicle in the middle of nowhere. They tried to make a small fire with the spare wheel rim, but it was not possible due to the cold.

This was explained to the local media by the official of the Russian Investigation Committee, Nadezhda Dvoretskaya: “The two young men tried to keep warm and burned a tire, but apparently they could not make a big fire because they could not remove the rest of the tires” .

Dvoretskaya did say that the young people had been able to communicate with their families, as reported in the Colombian newspaper Week.

When a rescue committee found them, Ustinov had already died as a result of the cold. Istomin, who was in serious condition, was taken by helicopter to a hospital in the town of Ust-Nera. According to information from Siberian Times, had a frostbite on his arms and legs and is fighting to save his life.