Wednesday, March 14, 2007

not a great day

Last thursday my friends and I left Gander bound for Stephenville via the groomed trail, at about 178 miles from home near Hampton Junction we came over a rise and at the bottem there were 3 machines parked blocking the trail. Our lead machine stopped as did the one folowing him(barely), then came me, I couldn't see a thing all of a sudden I was in a cloud of dust(snow) when it cleared it was too late I tried to go around on the right but went into Colin on machine number 2. Jason was behind me now in a cloud, he didn't see anything and went right into Trace(number 1) and one of the machines blocking the trail. By this time we were able to flag down the next two machines in enough time to stop any further collisions. In all 5 seriously destroyed snowmobiles and 2 with minor damage, a couple broken bones(mine) and a lot of stiff and sore bodies. I really don't know where peoples minds are when they stop and don't pull off the trail. I liken it to stopping on a street and not pulling over out of the way. The snowmobile industry is getting bigger and bigger every year here in Newfoundland, more people are out and more trails are constructed. I believe that the Snowmobile Federation have a lot of work ahead of them in education and regulation before we can call it a "safe" sport. I know the risk I read the sign "use trails at own risk" but I know it can be safer. We are so lucky, a little to the right or a little to the left I'm sure there could have been someone killed. For all snowmobilers and ATVers out there use your heads and a little common sence, be carefull, ride safe and above all ride sober.

2 comments:

photowannabe said...

Wow, scary. I am glad things weren't worse. Seems people just don't think beyond the moment. it should be like a car and drive defensively.

Karen said...

Ouch!!! I hope your bones heal quickly. You gotta wonder about some people.