What are some people thinking?

[Mankato-Ice-Man]

As I am driving off the lake today, I meet a van with 2 children in the back seat still strapped in their car seats.
Ya, I know... 18 inches of ice is plenty safe for a minivan, but no ice is ever 100% safe and I sure as heck am not going risk the life of the most important thing I have ever had by leaving my son strapped in his seat on the ice. I have a hard enough time getting him out of that thing under normal conditions, let alone adding the stress of TWO kids, in the back of van while its sinking in to 35 feet of water.

I am really not sure why I am posting this. Maybe venting. Maybe a warning or trying to get people to think about their actions a little bit. It just gave me a bad, bad feeling in the pit of my stomach seeing this and thinking of the worse case senario.

[This message has been edited by Mankato-Ice-Man (edited 01-25-2004).]

[andylee]

I hear you mankato, there's morons everywhere. A couple of weeks ago I was fishing and heard a loud thunder of ice cracking and looked out my window, some one-who-thinks-I-am-silly had two small kids in the back seat, was pulling a fish house with a large suv at about 40mph across the ice right over the channel in the lake, an untested area of ice that was only about 8-10" thick in some spots.

My 14 year old son has been fishing with me since he was 6 and when we are on the lake, he is always in the front seat with no seat belt and both of our windows are open and never drive over 10mph as to not create an underwater wave.

I get so angry when I see someone putting the lives of others at risk especially children.

Andy

[Ishmel]

I'm curious to know.... When you all see this kind of thing, do you ever try to tell the moron in question that what he's doing might be dangerous? I would never, ever, drive on the ice with my young kids strapped in, but if I was doing something as dangerous as that, I would hope that someone would clue me in to my stupidity.

As sportsmen and women, do we have a resposibilty to let each other know when we are being stupid?

Just curious.

[Esoxmn]

this is proof ther is no safe ice
http://fishingmn.com/pics/halad-grader.jpg

[Uncle Grump]

Esox

Whats the story behind the grader pic?

UG

[Paul Waldowski]

UG,

That grader went thru Upper Red a couple of days ago. You can see more pics and get the whole story on the Red Lake forum

------------------
Paul
[email protected]
Marcum
Otter Outdoors

[mistermom]

The problem with pointing out stupid behavior to people is you might get a tire iron in the forehead for your efforts.

mm

[andylee]

In my case, the guy was going to fast to catch and say something to, but two weeks later I saw him again, and started a casual conversation and was able to slip in a warning about strapping his kids in, about checking the ice thickness before driving and about driving slower as not to cause an underwater wave. In this case it was recived well as he was new to fishing up here and nobody ever took the time to explain these things to him.
Andy

[Esoxmn]

The grader in the pic was on Upper Red Lake, out of bensomatics. He tried to move an old snow bank, and they said the snow insilated the ice so it didnt get any thicker under the bank.

[Jarrod32]

Andy makes a good point...a casual conversation, just slip it in as some 'helpful advice'. A little courteousy and politely suggesting something will go a lot farther than going at it with the idea of chewing someone out. Don't start off by calling them an one-who-thinks-I-am-silly (even though they may well be), or you will be met with the equal and opposite reaction.

[Gus]

Being polite can go a long way with most people and everyone can learn things now and again. I never knew until I found this board that driving slow on ice is better than fast. In my mind, if a snowmobile (even if stupid) can skip accross open water, a vehicle traveling fast could go accross thinner ice than one going slow. I held that concept in my head for years until I learned differently. One more reason to read on this board! Thanks for the wealth of information.

[Guest]

Check me if I'm wrong here, but is anyone so "checked-out" of reality and responsibility that they don't really know that strapping yourself and kids into a vehicle and driving on frozen water is galactically stupid?

Give me a break...

[metrojoe]

My boys know as soon as the front tires hit the ice the seat belts come off and the exits are kept clear. Sometimes the sliding door on the van is unlatched but still closed just in case.

Ice is never safe.

[Johnny B]

I think that most people have a pretty realistic and common sense approach to ice-safety. I also believe that Darwin had a theory for those who do not…

[Ole1855]

I can't agree more with all of the above comments!!! Not only do I not wear my seatbelt when driving on the ice, I actually have everyone in the truck open their doors and hold it open with their foot. My reasoning here is if the front end drops in the open doors will hopefully catch the edge of the ice and hold the truck up at least long enough for everyone to get out.

Ole

[phin101]

Do you ever ask yourself if it's really worth if for a few fish. If we have to come up with an elaborate safety plan to survive a break through, perhaps we should ask if we should be driving out there at all. I'm probably worse than most on this board. I fish a lot in march and normally wear a life jacket when walking to my spot. What an one-who-thinks-I-am-silly! My wife asks "If you have to wear a life jacket, should you be going at all?."
The answer to my first questions is, of course, YES!!! Same for the second.

[Crossin' Eyes]

God Bless the old hand crank windows!!

[kenandheather1121]

This is something that made me mad in this summer. We were out in the boat and this pontoon came by. This little girl about 5 years old was in the front with her feet hanging over in the water. The pontoon had to have been going about 15-20mph. If the water would of caught her foot wrong it would of flipped her in the water and he probably would of hit her with the motor. He would not of had time to stop. If I see them again Im going to say something to them. Sorry this is not about ice fishing but is something that made me so mad.
Good luck and be safe.