100 Mile Snow Safari Forum

Milwaukee's channel 4 had this short snowmobile focused "Speedbusters" segment...

[URL="http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/Speed ... 92411.html"]http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/Speed ... 92411.html[/URL]

I believe myself to be very safety conscious and think that I ride with a great deal of common sense (of course, everyone thinks that of themselves!) And, personally, I don't have an issue with WI's 55mph nighttime speed limit. (And, if you do, far be it from me to argue with you!)

I've watched this a few times now, and I think everything they reported was factual. None the less, I am left feeling that the whole thing felt kinda negatively skewed and was portraying typical riders in a negative light. You can just barely see the "25mph" sign near the intersection where the DNR is stopping riders, so I assume this to be an intersection near some Vilas Co. town. To the average, non riding viewer, they probably don't pick up on this subtlety, and just see a random rural intersection in the middle of nowhere. Thus, it seemed to me that, without words, they were attempting to portray a bunch of "G****mn snowmobiling maniacs" lawlessly tearing around the countryside.

Am I being too sensitive? :shrug:

I just watched this myself. I, like you, felt it was done in an OK manner. Prior to watching it, I sure felt like I was going to get P-O'ed. You have to remember, that if you were in your car going 40 in a 25 that you will probably get picked. Even if not posted, you have to understand the situation you are driving in or around. I will admit that sometimes these signs get buried, but coming into town or going down the RR Bed in ER or the residential area in St Germain, there is no reason to be going that fast. Did you see the guy come sliding to a stop in the video behind the first guy that the warden stopped? Pay attention!!! There was a major inaccuracy though...The title pointed to St Germain, but the majority of the video was in ER. I did applaud his closing comments speaking that the number of deaths usually coincides with the length of the season - FIANLLY someone realized that opportunity creates higher levels as compared to shortened seasons. I do review the DNR website for causes and locations of fatal accidents. What I find interesting and what jumps out the most, is the average age of those killed. With OUT doing the math, looks to be on average mid-to-upper 40's.

If you read the 15 snowmobile death reports for this year. Only 4 have been on marked snowmobile trails. The rest have been off trail riding in ditches, crossing lakes, hitting bridges or cabins. I guess WTMJ forgot to memtion that in their report. "Stay on the trail."

Like everyone, I too peruse the DNR report regularly. As I said in my initial comment, a rider's best tool against something catastrophic is his or her common sense. I often refer to the report when talking to freinds/relatives who don't ride, and have a preconcieved notion that snowmobiling is crazy dangerous. "Oh, you snowmobile?!? I heard someone got killed last weekend! You're nuts!"

Yes, the machines can be really, really fast, and if you do stupid things, you can very easily kill yourself! Yes, the report almost always mentions speed, 'cuz it's pretty rare that someone dies when not moving ('cept when they drown)! When I review the report, I focus on looking for reports that DON'T include one of the following: Alcohol, Safety Certificate, Helmet. I hadn't really focued on the off-trail stat before, but that only further underscores my point - if you don't drink, take the safety class (and take it seriously), wear your helmet, stay on the trail, and use commone sense (ride smart, ride right) you will have vastly reduced your chances of a fatal incident.

To TMJ's credit, they did point out these kinds of facts ... I simply feel the report would've been better had they more directly focused on that stuff. I still see plenty of riders bellied up to the bar drinking when I make trail stops - but nothing like it was 10-15 years ago. Now, you see WAY more riders choosing other than alcoholic refreshements, and I think that, more than anything else, is the main reason you've seen a drip in fatalities. (And, they rightly noted that a longer season will drive up the number, though that rise may not actually be a rise when compared to total annual trail miles.) I just don't think the average Joe doing 40 instead of 25 coming into town is the biggest safety problem riders face. Citeable, yes, but my small issue here is not with the enforcement of the laws, but the reporting seeming to focus on that as "issue #1".

For what it is worth, I do appreciate the work that the various law enforcenent agencies are doing, and I've never felt it to be oppressive in any way. I had a very nice, friendly (and completely voluntary, lest you think otherwise!) conversation with a pair of Marinette Co. deputies in Athelstane while up weekend before last. I was commenting to them how lucky they were getting to work and ride at the same time - the priveledge was not lost on them!

[QUOTE=Skip28;19939]
I had a very nice, friendly (and completely voluntary, lest you think otherwise!) conversation with a pair of Marinette Co. deputies in Athelstane while up weekend before last. I was commenting to them how lucky they were getting to work and ride at the same time - the priveledge was not lost on them![/QUOTE]

I have seen you riding before Skip, are you sure it was a friendly conversation?

Nothing good comes out of the Media about snowmobiling. I have invited several of the local TV stations out to do a story about my clubs race. I have been told that they can't afford to send someone out on a weekend because of cost. This was from the editor of WTMJ4, but they can send someone up to ER :rolleyes: Must not cost that much to drive to ER for a few days :shrug:

The only thing that was correct is that the longer the season the higher the deaths. BTW most of the deaths occur in the afternoon not at bar time.

[QUOTE=snohawk;19940]I have seen you riding before Skip, are you sure it was a friendly conversation? [/QUOTE]

I would never do anything to offend the the officers on the trail! So, with that said, I'll be off to "harass" the local law enforcement officials in Green Co. this weekend....:slywink:

As a groomer I always see the spots where riders missed the turn or just plain ran off of the trail. Yesterday I counted 7 of these on a 12 mile section. Looks like the trees did a number on at least a few machines. People rideing to fast in center or wrong side are the biggest problem. Busting stop signs (rolling stop) isn't that big of problem to me. Money maker for DNR.

The news media in this case claims to be factual, but no one knows the ratio of sledder deaths to miles ridden in a given season.
With the entire state having open trails this is an epic snowmobiling year.
The piece was at best mild hyped fiction.
All the footage I saw was in DOWNTON ER.

The comment on the guy fishtailing a bit was uncalled for....like you never fishtailed....LOL..... The DNR officer was not identifiable in any way....at a glance he just looked like some goof hanging out at an intersection. The 1st sledder guy that caused the second sledder to fishtail was being harrassed with hand waiving by the unidentifiable DNR goof.
The DNR goof caused the disruption/fishtail between the 2 sledders that otherwise knew each others ride rhythm.