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Groomer sinks to bottom of pond. Sun Feb 7.


Blake G

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Be careful out there.

 

South Shore Snowmobile Club groomer breaks through ice in the late afternoon of Sunday, February 7, 2016.

 

Operator is rescued by sledders.

 

http://www.nugget.ca/2016/02/07/groomer-sinks-driver-ok

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I'm glad the operator is ok, and a big thank you to the snowmobile riders that helped rescue him.

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Oh boy that's not good.  Glad he is okay and like Re:leaf said thankfully the sledder helped him out.  Wow!!!

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And if you look just below the article on the groomer there is a link to another article that mentions two dead. A snowmobiler hit a woman standing outside an ice hut.

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And if you look just below the article on the groomer there is a link to another article that mentions two dead. A snowmobiler hit a woman standing outside an ice hut.

And it killed both of them? I cannot fathom how that happens 

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... and injured the child, seemingly non-life threatening.  No brains sometimes.  

 

Yup, the 2 sledders saved that groomer drivers' life, he wouldn't have lasted long even if he did get back up on top of the ice.

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... and injured the child, seemingly non-life threatening.  No brains sometimes.  

 

Yup, the 2 sledders saved that groomer drivers' life, he wouldn't have lasted long even if he did get back up on top of the ice.

Gives me chills when I read this stuff, One year I broke trough the ice of a lake, I got up of my seat and the water was poring in, opened the door and big ice chunks where floating in I tried getting out but was having a hard time one guy on a sled was there, he jumped on the groomer, grabbed my jacket and leaped off the groomer with both of us landing on our backs on the ice beside the groomer. I was glad he was there to help me.

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I too am struggling with understanding how this could happen.

Condolences to the families who are impacted by this.

High speed, out of control, hit girl, hit shack? There are lots scenarios, unfortunately. RIP to those involved.
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Be careful out there.

 

South Shore Snowmobile Club groomer breaks through ice in the late afternoon of Sunday, February 7, 2016.

 

Operator is rescued by sledders.

 

http://www.nugget.ca/2016/02/07/groomer-sinks-driver-ok

I thought a few years ago the OFSC said "no more groomers on the ice" or am I dreaming?
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I thought a few years ago the OFSC said "no more groomers on the ice" or am I dreaming?

 

No, you're not dreaming but what is the definition of a pond?  Or, ice?  Ice over 6" of water that became 6' of water due to the beavers? 

 

I know the pond close to Mr. Gas south of Trout Lake.  It is not a great deal different than some of the "ponds" that we ask our groomers to cross.  Some years the ponds are small, some years they are large (beavers, rainfall, runoff).   If you eliminate all "ponds" from grooming operations then there will be no trails.  Or swamps.  What is the difference between a swamp and a pond from one year to the next?   It's a shallow swamp today and a deep pond next year.  So many trails all over the province are crossing swamps or ponds or both. 

 

Tough Call !

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Re Ministry of Labour . I'm sure some ministry will show up to justify their salary and existence and add to the problems. I would suggest the Ministry of Environment would be there. .I'm not involved with the Cramadog Club from Ardbeg but one of their grooming sleds went thru the ice last year I've heard they had deal with them also.

RW

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And it killed both of them? I cannot fathom how that happens 

 

It happens, same basic accident happened in front of my Aunt house in 2007, 50 yards out both the person walking and the fellow on the sled dead, it was at high speed

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No, you're not dreaming but what is the definition of a pond?  Or, ice?  Ice over 6" of water that became 6' of water due to the beavers? 

 

I know the pond close to Mr. Gas south of Trout Lake.  It is not a great deal different than some of the "ponds" that we ask our groomers to cross.  Some years the ponds are small, some years they are large (beavers, rainfall, runoff).   If you eliminate all "ponds" from grooming operations then there will be no trails.  Or swamps.  What is the difference between a swamp and a pond from one year to the next?   It's a shallow swamp today and a deep pond next year.  So many trails all over the province are crossing swamps or ponds or both. 

 

Tough Call !

Good point. I was thinking of a it always being a large pond / small lake all the time. Only been over that part of the trail a couple of times as we have normally stayed at Travelodge Airport so miss that particular stretch when heading north.

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Good point. I was thinking of a it always being a large pond / small lake all the time. Only been over that part of the trail a couple of times as we have normally stayed at Travelodge Airport so miss that particular stretch when heading north.

No you don't.

It happened on the D trail between Travelodge trail SSR711 and Trout Lake.

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And it killed both of them? I cannot fathom how that happens 

saw opp report on web they where doing radar runs as the think the woman was holding the gun also a visibility problem as it was 6-30 at night

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We passed this spot where the groomer is on Friday morning and again last night around 5pm.  There was a guy there drilling a hole in the ice with a cordless drill.  I have no idea what they might have been trying to do.  As we drove off the south end of the pond, there was a slushy spot that made me think "how safe is this really".

 

It is very sad that it happened and thankfully he is ok.

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No you don't.

It happened on the D trail between Travelodge trail SSR711 and Trout Lake.

Sorry, I thought it was between SSR711 & Hwy 17
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No, you're not dreaming but what is the definition of a pond?  Or, ice?  Ice over 6" of water that became 6' of water due to the beavers? 

 

I know the pond close to Mr. Gas south of Trout Lake.  It is not a great deal different than some of the "ponds" that we ask our groomers to cross.  Some years the ponds are small, some years they are large (beavers, rainfall, runoff).   If you eliminate all "ponds" from grooming operations then there will be no trails.  Or swamps.  What is the difference between a swamp and a pond from one year to the next?   It's a shallow swamp today and a deep pond next year.  So many trails all over the province are crossing swamps or ponds or both. 

 

Tough Call !

Very accurate post STG.  right on the money buddy.  I saw the spot it went through and it sucks.  Here the club is grooming a main trail for gas and accomodations and some people always have something negative to say.  It was not a lake and the swamp/pond is so small that you would not think it was that deep.  That section is a very busy section that has been groomed previously this year.  I am glad the operator is okay and am very thankful for all he has done for us sledders over the years. 

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Taken from www.northbaynipissing.com Newspaper on line article.

Well worth a read for everyone involved with a Club

groomer driver tells of his narrow escape from icy water

Submitted Photo

Bob Belanger of Callander counts himself fortunate after escaping from this groomer.

Almaguin News

By Rob Learn

Bob Belanger takes a lot of pride in being safe when it comes to ice.

For more than a decade now, the volunteer with the South Shore/Restoule Snowmobile Club has personally managed the trail system connecting to the North Bay system. Where the trail crosses water he doesn’t take risks. He walks out, cuts through with a chainsaw, and measures.

It’s an attention to detail that’s kept him safe, that is until this past Sunday when the groomer he was driving broke through a pond he had already marked as being thick enough and had crossed just an hour before.

“It should teach other people who have to cross ice you can’t be too careful. Even very, very careful isn’t careful enough sometimes. I’m very fortunate that I’m able to tell people that,” Belanger said Monday, still shaken by his narrow escape from 20-feet of frozen-over water.

"Even very, very careful isn’t careful enough sometimes."

Belanger was driving the 1999 Bombardier BR180 with a Mogul Master groomer on the D Trail between Highway 17 and Trout Lake Road, having waited for quite some time to take the big machine across, regularly testing the five or six ponds the trail crosses for his magic number of 16 inches.

“I had already crossed and turned back when I broke through,” Belanger said. He turned back shortly after 3 p.m. from where the South Shore/Restoule trails meet up with North Bay.

He estimates the pond is about 500 yards across but the groomer was only about 50 feet out when trouble struck, and quickly.

“I felt the back of the machine break through, it tilted back… I tried to throttle it to get it back up on the ice but it was too late,” Belanger said.

What happened next, Belanger says, is a blur. The big machine went down in about 20 feet of water. His first instinct, and the right one, was to find the latch for the escape hatch in the roof of the groomer for him to get out.

“I could see something that was sort of yellow and I couldn’t see much else. I was really looking for that latch and I found it pretty quickly.”

He managed to get it open just in time.

“The cab filled up so fast I think it was full by the time I found the latch.”

Without the rush of water and wearing snow pants, winter boots, but no coat, all he had to do was swim out.

“Your body just fits through. It’s tight but I was OK,” Belanger said. “…I had to swim for the surface.”

He remembers popping out and clutching onto some large chunks of ice to stay afloat.

After struggling in the water for a very short while, Belanger says he clung to the ice, realizing he couldn’t get out of the water on his own. Fortunately two snowmobilers were right behind him and able to free him from the hole that had swallowed up the big piece of equipment.

“They were very quick getting a rope and getting me out of the water,” Belanger said.

By the time he was out, two more snowmobilers had arrived and were able to call 911 while Belanger was transported to the Mr. Gas station on Highway 17 just a few kilometres from the Highway 11 interchange. Paramedics took him to hospital and he was thoroughly evaluated for any physical trauma and given a clean bill of health even though he was in the frigid water for up to five minutes.

Back at home in Callander with his wife Barb, he is still in disbelief on Monday that all his safety precautions weren’t enough to prevent the accident.

“I go physically walk them and measure them until we get 16 inches of ice,” Belanger says. So seriously does he take the job that he always makes a point of making the first run crossing the ponds, to make sure he’s not putting anyone else in danger.

Aside from what could have gone wrong, he and Barb are wondering about how to reach out to the two men, one from Akron, Ohio, the other Kemptville near Ottawa, who pulled him to safety on Sunday.

“I don’t know how I could possibly thank them. They saved my life.”

Rob Learn is the News Editor of the Almaguin News, Parry Sound North Star and Parry Sound Beacon Star. He can be reached at rlearn@metrolandnorthmedia.com . Follow him on Twitter and Facebook

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