Thin ice takes its toll

[Spiel]

Thin ice takes its toll

 

 

Jan 14, 2010

Rick Vanderlinde / www.simcoe.com

 

 

The owner of submerged vehicle works to free his

Ford Explorer after it went through the ice about 250-feet

from the Innisfil Beach Park boat ramp Saturday. / Rick Vanderlinde

 

 

It was a wrong turn that ended up costing thousands of dollars.

 

A Bancroft man returned to Innisfil Beach Park Monday to retrieve his Ford Explorer after it broke through the ice about 250-feet from shore Saturday.

 

The man, who didn’t want to be identified, told onlookers who had gathered to watch the SUV being pulled from Lake Simcoe, he was a passenger when the truck plunged through the four-to-five inch thick ice.

 

Onlookers were telling tall tales of police chases and stolen vehicles, when the man set the record straight.

 

“It wasn’t nothing like that. I was the passenger. There was no police chase and no stolen vehicle,” he said as friends tried to hook chains to the submerged vehicle. “We just got mixed up and came on the ice at the wrong spot.”

 

The 55-year-old man said he and a 37-year-old friend drove across the ice along Cook’s Bay from Keswick to the Bell Ewart area, coming ashore at Conc. 5.

 

“We went out shopping and ended up coming to the lake here,” he said. “We thought we were getting back on the ice at the same place we came off.”

 

Instead, the SUV drove down the boat launch used by ATVs and snowmobiles at Innisfil Beach Park and crashed through the ice seconds later.

 

“I’m not too worried about the truck,” the man said. “It was only worth about $500 before it went through.”

 

But the estimated $2,000 cost of the tractor-trailer sized tow truck and an automatic $1,500 provincial fine was hard on the pocket book. The man and the driver also face court costs after they were charged with obstructing police.

They were charged because they refused to tell police who was driving the vehicle, the man said.

 

Rod Smith was returning to shore on his snowmobile Saturday when he saw the truck come down the ramp and smash through the ice.

 

“They came bouncing across the ice pretty fast. They didn’t slow down at all, they just went right through,” Smith said. “A man and woman got out as it was going down and another guy barrel-rolled out of a window as the water was coming up. As soon as he got out, the truck went right down.”

 

One of the men told him they thought they were about to cross the ice on Cook’s Bay, Smith said.

The threesome left the scene, walking toward the park.

“The girl was pretty upset about the whole thing,” he said.

 

Smith, who went back to the site Monday to watch the recovery, said he reported the incident to South Simcoe Police.

 

“They called me back on my cellphone later and said no one was around the vehicle,” he said.

 

However, police later found and questioned the men, which led to the obstruction charges.

 

It took several men about four hours to get the car out of the lake with the help of the heavy-duty tow truck. A chain-saw was used to cut a 150-foot path through the ice so the vehicle could be pulled free.

 

It wasn’t the first vehicle to go through Lake Simcoe ice this year. Tragically, a Georgina Island man was killed New Year’s Day when his Jeep went through the ice near Virginia marina.

Wayne Hoeg, a well-known First Nations citizen, had a heart attack during the incident.

Ice hut operators and police warn that it is never a good idea to drive on the ice.