Thread: Safety

DNR warns snowmobilers, anglers about thin ice
By Robert Imrie
The Associated Press
Wisconsin’s snowmobile season is off to a deadly start, in part because of thin ice.
Four snowmobilers have died — three of them drowning after their snowmobiles broke through the ice, the state Department of Natural Resources said today.
A year ago, Wisconsin had not yet had a snowmobile fatality and the first of 26 deaths didn’t occur until Dec. 29.
“We constantly stress that there is no such thing as safe ice, especially early in the season,” said Gary Eddy, the DNR’s snowmobile safety administrator.
For the first time in years, snow covers all of Wisconsin and it’s been cold enough for lakes and rivers to form ice.
But in some places, particularly southern Wisconsin, heavy snow has put a cover of insulation on lakes, retarding the development of thick, safe ice, the DNR said.
“If you got an inch of ice, and six inches of snow, you are going to have some slowing of the freezing water underneath. The more snow you get on the top, the slower it is going to be,” said Karl Brooks, the DNR’s deputy chief of law enforcement based in Madison.
It’s best to be cautious this time of year and for the most part people are heeding that advice and staying off the lakes, Brooks said. “You are not seeing the droves and droves of people that you might normally see in January after we have had some real solid, cold weather.” In northern Wisconsin, some smaller lakes have up to 8 inches of ice but the largest ones may have only 4 inches, said DNR spokesman Jim Bishop in Spooner. And some warmer temperatures are forecast for later this week, perhaps eroding conditions, he said.
“Right now, I would suggest that no one drive out on any of the lakes at this time, simply because of the variability of the ice,” Bishop said.
A blast of cold air produced about 3 inches of ice, that was followed by about 5 inches of snow and then it got cold again, producing maybe 2 more inches of ice, he said. “We haven’t been putting on much ice for the last week to 10 days,” Bishop said. “I only drive on a lake when there is at least 10 to 12 inches of ice. Even then, I want to make sure other people have gone out before me.”
Two of snowmobile drownings occurred on the Rock River in Jefferson County in southern Wisconsin. The third happened on a Chippewa County lake in western Wisconsin.
Rivers can be treacherous because moving water beneath the ice can result in thin ice just feet away from where the ice may be much thicker, Eddy said.
The victim in the lake death had been drinking prior to leaving a resort and was told the ice conditions were not good on the lake but took that route despite the warnings, the DNR said.
But it’s not only snowmobiles falling through the ice so far this winter.
Last weekend, two men crawled from pickup trucks that fell through the ice on Poskin Lake in Barron County and Lake Winnebago in Winnebago County.
Barron County Chief Deputy Jason Leu said the ice on Poskin Lake was no more than 4 inches thick when a 53-year-old man lost his pickup. Alcohol was a factor in the decision to go on the ice.
That thickness of ice would barely hold an all-terrain four-wheeler, Leu said. “There are not many people driving on the ice right now. Most people wait until it is about a foot thick.”
Brooks said the DNR does not keep records of vehicles that fall through the ice but it is not uncommon in Wisconsin, especially in the spring. “I wouldn’t put my vehicle out there anytime,” he said.