MCNAUGHTON, Wis. (WJFW) - Over the weekend 2 more crashes in the Northwoods brings the count of recent snowmobile fatalities to 4, all in the span of four days. The crashes include one in McNaughton and one in Phelps on Thursday, another in Nokomis on Friday, and one late yesterday in Arbor Vitae.
The DNR and sheriff's office are in the middle of investigating each of these cases. Chris Bartelt is Lieutenant Conservation Warden who oversees Vilas, Oneida, and Iron counties. As part of crash investigations like this one, he says that scene mapping is done by agencies like state patrol.
"We'll utilize that to try to figure out how fast these machines were going, maybe maybe what the operator what doing right before the crash so we can try to put together as best of a picture to what was actually occurring on that machine so that we can try to create better laws, better rules going forward to help prevent stuff like this," said Bartelt.
He says that the two accidents are believed to be caused by excessive speed and operator inexperience. He added that the state's required snowmobile safety class for those born on or after January 1st, 1985 is there to help new riders before they get experience riding. He also recommends that those born before the date still use the class. Then its time to get reps on the trails.
"Starting out slow, learning from somebody whose got experience, going in a group and just taking your time and enjoy it which is what this is all supposed to be about," said Bartelt.
While the investigation for these accidents are still underway, the DNR is urging safety. They say that they are awaiting results to see if alcohol usage was a factor in any of these cases. As of today, there have been seven snowmobile accidents already, that's one more than this time last year.
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