by Marty Brown
Northern News Services

NNSL (DEC 09/96) - Mounties across the North are warning snowmobilers to beware of unsafe ice and open water.

Just last week there were two incidents involving snow machines breaking through the ice on Marion Lake near the North Slave community of Rae.

Five children escaped unhurt after the snowmachine and the toboggan they were travelling on went through the ice.

Fortunately for them there was a house close by and residents heard the children's cries for help and brought them to safety.

In another incident, a man driving at night on a well- travelled snowmobile path broke through the ice. The driver, wet and scared, was rescued by a passing snowmobiler.

These are frightening developments in a land where its inhabitants were born to ride snowmachines. In fact, many Northerners see snowmachines as near extensions of their bodies and a means to a livelihood, not to mention precious winter transportation.

Besides, with eight months of snow it would be silly to stay inside.

But because snowmachines go across country, often in the dark, there is a chance riders will run into open water, either salt or fresh.

"Travel in pairs and avoid travelling at night in risky areas," warns Constable Darrell Robertson of the RCMP detachment in Rae.

People make the mistake of thinking that just because the ice is thick, there's no open water.

That's not necessarily true, says Robertson. Fast moving currents may keep ice open. And snow acts as an insulator, keeping the ice underneath soft.

Certainly there are a number of precautions every snowmobiler should take before even heading out the door, much less hitting open water on a lake or the sea.

Every snowmobiler should carry spare parts, a first aid kit and a flashlight.

Robertson recommends packing an emergency kit of dry clothes, including socks and mitts, a stove, food and an aluminium space-age blanket as well.

Half of all snowmobile accidents in Canada are the result of drowning, something snowmobile manufacturers know well.

In the past few years, floatation snowmobile suits have been developed. But do they work in the North's cold waters?

The complicating factor is hypothermia, which develops when body temperature drops dramatically and people loose mental and physical functions and, eventually, conscious.

Curtis Bullock, a unit leader for the Canadian Coast Guard, had the unfortunate experience of going through the ice last year.

Because of the cold temperatures here, any buoyancy device is a life saver, he says, because they keep you afloat despite your ability to function being severely impaired by the cold.

And while buoyancy suits can add an extra hundred dollars to the cost of a snowmobile suit, it could save a life, which is worth substantially more.

Floating suits aren't the only new-fangled snowmobile safety devices being developed for the market place.

We've all heard of air bags in cars, but how about air bags that deploy when snowmobiles break through thin ice, Bullock asks?

Engineering students at the University of Waterloo have come up with just such a device.

They've developed an award winning-prototype that incorporates three bags -- one under the snowmachine's nose and one under each running board -- which inflate with high-pressure carbon dioxide in about two seconds after water rises past a set level.

The airbags have not yet become standard or even optional on most mass market snowmachines, but you can look forward to them in the not so distant future.

However, one product that is readily available today is the IcEscape.

IcEscape is a light-weight ice-pick set, protected in foam and hung around the snowmachine drivers neck. It can be used to pull the driver out of the water.

There's also floating komatiks manufactured out of composite plastic starting at about $400 that could save lives.

Snowmobile clubs and RCMP have snowmobile safety videos, but, of course, the best prevention is caution, said Robertson, and common sense.