Rescue crews used GPS tracking to locate the victim of a traffic accident Tuesday morning in Bellevue.

The man's vehicle wound up in a branch of the Papio Creek near 50th and Giles Road. Twenty-three-year-old Travis Walters of Omaha was disoriented, didn't know where he was, didn't even know what vehicle he was driving.

Police tracked him down using his cell phone's Global Positioning System.

Remember Michael Wamsley and Janelle Hornickel? Three years ago, the couple got lost in rural Sarpy County in a blizzard. High on meth, they told 911 they were in Omaha. Both of them died. Cell phone GPS tracking could have saved them.

In Tuesday's crash, Walters thought he was in Omaha, six miles away, but 911 computers reading cell towers and satellites told them something different.

Dispatcher: “Sarpy County 911.”

Caller: “I had a car accident.”

Dispatcher: “Where are you at?”

Caller: “I don't know. I'm off the side of the road and I really hurt.”

Dispatcher: “Where were you going to?”

Caller: “I don't know.”

Walters sounded confused to 911. Later, Bellevue Police said he'd been drinking. He didn't know where he lived or what he drove. No doubt, he was scared.

Caller: “I'm gonna die.”

Dispatcher: “No, you're going to be okay.”

Caller: “It's okay. You can tell me if I'm going to die.”

What if this were the old days, before cell phones? "A lot of wasted effort trying to check an area that the person wasn't even close to,” says Larry Lavelle of Sarpy County 911.

Caller: “Can you track me?”

Dispatcher: “Well, we think we can by your cell phone. That's what we're trying to do.”

Many can't help but think what could have been without GPS tracking of cell phones. "If that car would have rolled, upside down in the water, you would find him a couple days later when someone stumbled upon him,” says Bellevue Police Chief John Stacey.

Dispatcher: “What kind of car are you in?”

Caller: “It looks like I'm in a van.”

Walters was found in a Chevy Malibu car.

He was treated at Creighton Medical Center and released, and cited for second-offense DUI.