Yeah, that's an understandable reaction. The young lady went through a horrible, traumatic event -- her grandparents burned in that wreck. How many of us would be thinking clearly after that?

Standing back from it, though, I still think that going blind into PNW bush, which can be incredibly dense and disorienting in a lot of places, is a surefire recipe for increasing the casualty count. Note that I don't have any specific information on this particular area -- maybe it's not as dense or overgrown, which would change the equation.