The NWT chief coroner has made a series of recommendations that may lead to a toughing of the rules for Inuvik's snowmachine drivers
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 25/01) - Snowmobile regulations in Inuvik are frequently ignored but possible legislation may make rules such as wearing helmets harder to avoid.
In January two kids were hauled onto stretchers and medevaced to Yellowknife and Edmonton after darting up a ditch and onto an Inuvik road on snowmobiles.
They were not wearing helmets and suffered head injuries after colliding with a vehicle. They recovered and about two weeks ago Peter Lennie, 12, and Mason Ipana, 13, were in Inuvik classrooms helping promote snowmobile safety.
"We just said what happened in the accident," Lennie said.
"We wanted to encourage every body to wear helmets," Ipana added. "I always go with a helmet now."
Lugging along posters they designed Lennie, Ipana and Peter's mother Billie Lennie talked to kids in Grades 4 to 6 about their harrowing experience and what they learned from it.
Many hamlets in the North do not have municipally enforced snowmobile regulations but Inuvik does. Helmets are mandatory, except for elders (those over 50), drivers have to be over the age of 16 with a driver's licence, have insurance and registration.
"I would guess there are about 1,000 machines in town and 30 to 40 per cent of the people actually insure and register their machines," said Randy Shermack, Inuvik's by-law enforcement officer.
On May 14 NWT chief coroner Percy Kinney released nine recommendations to the Government of the Northwest Territories to consider legislating.
Those recommendations came from a coroner's investigation spurred by a tragic snowmobile accident in Fort Good Hope in October. Three of the five kids involved in that one were not as lucky as Lennie and Ipana.
"There has been accident after accident but they are just lucky most of the time," said William McNeely, father of Kevin who died when his snowmobile crashed head-on at high speed into another last October.
It is going to happen again so I think they should come down really hard on it," he added. "As soon as you start pulling money out of people's pockets they notice."
Kevin was 22 years old when he died along with Albert Lafferty and Jason Dean. Two girls were also injured in the accident.
Kinney said if the GNWT implements a blanket legislation based on his suggestions the entire territory would abide by the same laws no matter what age or what community.
"We are the leaders in snowmobile use in the NWT," he said.
"I would think that we would have the most comprehensive legislation in place down the road.... If you want (communities) to start enforcing the rules you have to give them strong legislation."
Shermack said the punishment for not following Inuvik snowmobile rules comes in a $75 fine or by impounding machines.
He said in Inuvik there are a lot of machines and a lot of accidents, especially in the last year.
"I go after them quite harshly," he said. "I had a pretty busy year."
Kinney expects a "generic" response from the government on his recommendations within a few weeks and a more detailed one by next snowmobile season.
