Snowmobile group association issues safety warning to stunt drivers

MIRIAM HILL

Michael Erving wants people to know that snowmobiles are not toys.

The president of the Nunavut Snowmobile Association says the machines should be operated in the same responsible manner as automobiles.

“Almost any vehicle, tool, or mechanical device can become dangerous if used improperly, carelessly, or irresponsibly,” he said.

Erving was responding to two recent accidents involving snow machines — one in which an Iqaluit girl was hit and dragged, but suffered no life-threatening injuries, and the tragic death of a teen in Baker Lake.

Erving said speed, alcohol and misuse of a machine are factors to blame in the incidents. Misuse, he explained, includes putting too many people on a machine, he explained.

“A single-passenger machine is built specifically for a single passenger,” he said. “If you go beyond two then you probably decrease the control of the machine by 60 to 70 per cent because the suspension systems in the machine are designed now to transfer weight over to the steering control and things like that.”

Staff Sgt. Michael Jeffrey of the Iqaluit RCMP said in the past two years there have been very few snow machine accidents in the city and none that resulted in death.

The city has been working on a new ATV bylaw to lay down some more specific rules for snow machines and all-terrain vehicles, but the process hit a glitch after a recent round of public consultations. Councillors decided the bylaw needed too many changes, and as a result, the draft would have to be rewritten. After first reading it will likely go to another round of public consultations, according to a city official.

Travis Dow, a bylaw supervisor in Iqaluit, said officers don’t have trouble with hunters, but the younger drivers on fast machines tend to do stunts and drive wildly on city streets.

He said wild driving includes jumping snow banks in the city or taking off at a fast speed too close to a roadway or on a road in a school zone.

“For every one ticket we’ve given out it’s safe to say we’ve given out 20 warnings,” he said.

Dow said snow machine drivers have to obey the rules in Iqaluit, just like drivers of automobiles — you have to be 16 to drive a snow machine, but you can be 14 if you have a 16-year-old on board.

He also said people should make sure the snow machine is registered and insured.