Awwhhh snap! That’s it, wrap this up. Put it in a box. We’re done. #drainingthepool
Yeah I’ll admit that was major pwnage.
…
I hear the boys are thirsty in Atlanta, but there’s beer in Texarkana…
As an EMT, I’m supposed to risk my life to save the patient’s. Even if that patient is a useless cumstain like UCBearcats.
Serious question from a southerner. Is there a governing or monitoring body that issues safety warnings about ice? The national weather service monitors wind and waves and will issue small craft warnings to boaters, and Flight Service Stations issue hazard warnings to aircraft (AIRMETs, SIGMETs, etc.). It would make sense for boaters or pilots who ignore those warnings to be held liable for any rescue cost. But if there is no way other than guesswork for ice fishermen to assess the ice below them, it seems difficult to hold them responsible for the results.
How do people who ice fish determine the strength of ice before driving on it? Living in the South, I wouldn’t know how, other than watching the other fishermen.
Here’s a perspective you may not have heard OP: I feel that people without an underlying compassion for all people have the same value as you seem to assign to this guy or others who fuck up due to stupidity. Would if be okay with you, then, if I see you dying and I refuse to help?
That’s why I want him rescued. Because I could be the one doing something that someone else considers incredibly stupid, and I would want them to help me.
Sure, risk assessment is a thing, but that’s up to the individual on how much risk they want to take. But I definitely want them to try and figure out a way to save me that is not too risky for them.
I don’t know if a government entity monitors it, but it is monitored. People [generally] don’t go out on the ice until it’s deemed thick enough and they’ll stay off it if it gets to thin. There’s often some mention of the ice conditions on the news, especially if they’re telling people to stay off it on a particular day. It’s typically also newsworthy if there season is starting late or ending early due to ice conditions.
Just looking right now, it’s about 1.5 to 2 feet deep and it only needs to be a few inches to walk on and a foot or so do drive on…and keep in mind that how thick it is here has nothing to do with how thick it is over there.
Also as far as how it monitored. They auger holes into it and measure how far down the ice goes.
A diver and a tow truck now v. a diver and a barge with a crane later. Might as well get the job done now for less money.
That would depend on whether or not the policy included comprehensive coverage and whether or not it had an off-road exclusion.
In Ontario, check with the Ministry of Transportation and the local police for for winter road conditions (a winter road is a road that includes going across frozen lakes), and for ice fishing, check with local ice fishing operators. As Joey P has pointed out, the thickness of the ice is tested by augering holes through it.
Here in northwestern Ontario, we have many communities that are only accessible by plane or by winter roads that travel across frozen lakes. Even in the southern part of the region, it is normal for people to drive across ice for ice fishing and to move material to their camps that are not road accessible.
UCB, you of all people should be thankful that rescuers rescue all people, including exceptionally stupid people. BTW, in the matter at hand, it was a buddy who performed the rescue. Fishing the truck out was a recovery, not a rescue, and no lives were put at risk in that recovery.
Who are 50% idiots…
Seriously though, up here in the tundra, it’s a common news story. TV newscasters will give warnings for weeks, then announce that the local DNR has decided it’s “Safe to walk or fish on the following lakes… Waubeesee, Waupeepee, Wabasoo, Waubasee, Waupaca, Waubesa, Wauwauweegee… and Irving.”
And we have the DNR posting signs along the lakeshore if it warms up the the extant that it’s no longer safe on the ice.
…and 50% beer, which helps.