Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, December 5, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A 21-year-old man hiked three kilometers for help Saturday night after pulling a co-worker to safety while another man went down with their vehicle that had plunged through thin ice.

" He really did what he could to make sure the other man did not succumb to hypothermia," said RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich.

According to RCMP reports, at around 9:30 p.m. Saturday night a Toyota Land Cruiser carrying three men went through the ice on Giauque Lake about three kilometres from the defunct Discovery Mine site.

Dreilich said after the vehicle broke through, the 21-year-old front seat passenger was able to escape and help the 37-year-old driver to safety. The men were not able to save 27-year-old Jaxon Smith of Wetaskawin, Alberta, who was riding in the backseat of the SUV. Police declined to identify the two survivors.

Dreilich said the driver got wet and lost his boots as he escaped from the truck.

" After (the passenger) pulled the driver from the vehicle, he took the liners from his own boots and gave them to the other man," she said.

When they reached the shore, the 21-year-old built a fire to keep the driver warm, and then headed back to the mine site to find help.

" Where they walked to shore, they couldn't see where the mine was, so he had to hike to a high point and get his bearings before hiking back to the site," she said.

As of press time, she said a team of three specially trained cold water divers were searching the lake for Smith's body with the assistance of deep water equipment.

Giauque Lake is approximately 100 feet deep in the area where the truck went through the ice, according to the RCMP.

Dreilich said the three men were working at the Discovery Mine site, but weren't on the job at the time of the accident.

" The company had not directed them to be on the ice," she said, adding that it's believed the men had been trying to salvage wood to build an ice fishing shack.

She also said the men had been out testing the ice thickness in various locations on the lake in the days prior to the incident.

She warned, however, that the ice can still be very inconsistent at this time of year.

The driver sustained frost bite on his feet but is recovering at the Discovery site, said Dreilich. The passenger suffered frost bite to his ears and has returned to Yellowknife for treatment. The 21-year-old is an employee of Yellowknife-based Connor's Drilling, a subcontractor working at the mine site, according to a man who answered the company's phone but wished not to be identified.

The other two men are employees of Tyhee Developments Corp, a Vancouver-based company that owns the long-closed Discovery mine site.

Tyhee issued a statement yesterday from the company's CEO, David Web, stating, " We extend our deepest condolences to the bereaved family, safety is of paramount importance to Tyhee, and we will conduct a full investigation."

The incident is also under investigation by the NWT Coroner's office and the Worker's Compensation Board.