Just curious. I have.

Aunt....Feb 2000. Thin ice on Lake Huron. The thing is, she wasn't a snowmobiler and probably had ridden only a handful of times in her life. She was a passenger with her friend driving. No one discovered she was missing till the next day when she didn't show up for work. I still remember my mom calling me the next day saying her sister, my aunt, was missing and presumed drowned. I had all sorts of mixed feelings hearing the news; sadness, disbelieve, shock, numbness, anger, etc. She was found a month later, and he has never been found. I was at the house when the sheriff, whom I know well, brought my aunt's belongings over for identification. RIP, we're thinking of you and love you Auntie!!!

the poll should include an almost...

Might be bad luck to vote...

Traveling threw the woods on a fast sled is dangerous business.

Where, when, How did your buddy do it?

Well back in 1991, I had a goo friend and roommate that just got into sledding and loved the heck out of it. He was a great guy that that rode a little crazy, I gave him many warning's about the dangers of it and alway's his reply's was if god want's me dead it will be walking down the street or driving my car, my reply was well you do not have to speed it up. Well the same year I had been riding with them and was left behind up in the u.p. witch was something that has never happend to me in my life do to riding responsably, tought by my grandfather. So subsaquintly I stopped riding with them. Well about 4 weeks later I was riding up at my cabin in grayling and I knew they were in Kalkaska, we have gotten about 15" of snow that day and the riding was awsome. Well re rode around 125 miles that day and were very tired at around 11pm and went to bed. Well at 12:30am I got a call at my cabin and it was a friend of all of us named scott and my heart dropped because I thought something was wrong with my girlfreind at the time, Scott had informed me that our friend Steve was dead do to as snowmobile accident. He hit a tree at around 70 to 80 mph and died instantly. YES he was very drunk and was on the way to get more beer because they were waiting on some other guy's to get there.

I guess the message here is LETS be there for not only our selves but LETS be there for our friends. I think about him every year around this time and wish he was still here to enjoy this fantastic sport.

Not on sleds, but 2 of my friends in high school we're killed in an atv and a dirt bike accident, they we're killed about 2 months apart.

In 1998 I had a friend killed on sand lake in mi, he went head on with another sled at night racing across the lake.

I voted no because the word 'buddy' to me implies close friend. But i do know people that have been killed. Brother of a casual friend for one. Going too fast, missed a turn, hit a tree.

Mine happened back in 95. I had a buddy that was on my wallyball team and wanted to get into sledding. That winter I invited him and his girlfriend up to Tip Up Town so he and I refitted his Dad's old 79 Exciter. We had a wonderful weekend, he even called his dad from the lake to tell him he was having the time of his life. The day we had to go home, we rode the sleds up to an eatery there in Lovells before we loaded the sleds up. We ate breakfast which he bought and we were on our way back to the cabin to load up. He girlfriend was on my sled at the time, 93 Formula Plus, because she said the seat was easier on her ass. I was about to pull into the drive and I'm glad I looked back cause he came screaming by us and would have t-boned us. We lost site of him around a corner which led to some open fields, we went to catch him so we could play in the fresh power. His girlfriend and I came around the corner and saw his Exciter 20 yards down the road from him and he lay at the base of a tree. It was a horrific site to see your best friend with every bone in his body crushed and for his girlfriend, it must have been worse. I left her for a second to run into the cabin to tell someone to call 911 and went back. He was still breathing but you know he was gone. I lay there holding my best friends head in my lap until he died because EMS couldn't do anything for him. We went to the hospital in Grayling to say goodbye and get interviewed by the sheriff's dept. I drove his girlfriend home in his truck and delivered the truck to his parents, facing them was the hardest thing I had to do beings I was the one that got him interested in the sport and invited him up. I looked after his girlfriend from then on and still do to this day. We go to his grave to honor him on his birthday and the anniversary of his accident.

God bless you Eric Tanner, you are missed buddy.


LET THIS BE A LESSON TO EVERYONE, YOU ARE NOT INVINCIBLE, PLEASE RIDE WITH CARE.

Voted for No....Never had a friend who died while sledding, but have lost a couple to car accidents.

Know 3 different people, none were close bud's, but knew them pretty well.

Sledding, no. But I lose one skiing last year and a few to racing. Never an easy subject to deal with, but it is a risk we are willing to take.

Yep, Three season ago this coming March. His family and friends,all told him again and again to slow up. I remember his attitude was, It can't happen to me, I am always in control. None of us would ride with him the last several years cause his idea of riding was cross country racing. The accident happened when he got real drunked up and hit a six inch diameter tree along NYS Corridor 7 in the Adirondacks, going real fast. He lingered for a month in a coma, lost his arm and shoulder, leg. It was a blessing he did not live. It was stupid.

Worst night of my life !

He left behind a beautiful wife and two baby boys.

Jan 28th 2000 - We were having the best time - until a high speed un-necessary ride through an area we have been through a thousand times got in the way.

I didn't ride for a while after that. But every year on the 28th I go to the same spot, have a few beers for him, and say a few words.

We all miss ya Greg.

yup,lost a good riding buddy,friend and co-worker a dozen years ago.changed my riding habits quite a bit.

My dad's best freind from childhood lost a brother. I was very young at the time, but it affected me a lot. He went out alone at night after drinking too much and rode into a chain across someones driveway that broke his neck.

I remember that, sorry it was a friend. My riding buddies have talked about this after someone from town doesn't make it. We've lost a couple of acquaintances, not real close but knew them. We wonder if we would be able to ride again.

Close "buddy?" No.

But so far 7 different acquaintences, all people I've known or at least met before. I've been riding since 1974, and all 7 deaths were in the past 5 years.

Curiously, NONE involved drinking/driving. ALL were freak one-person accidents.

5 involved 100% sober people who hit a tree, or stump, or ice heave on a lake, or low stump on a lake running at pretty high speed in broad daylight. Every one of them was a local (UP Michigan) experienced rider who has ridden 5,000 miles per year for 15 to 25+ years and all died while riding in familiar territory. All bled to death slowly waiting for help and nobody could do anything to prevent it.

The other two were both ice-fisherman, going out in the morning on a sled with a bunch of gear on sled/trailer at about 15 mph, no helmets. Both (2 different incidents) hooked a ski on a stump or something near shore, fell off, and just landed wrong. Died instantly.

The last 2 died due to head trauma, the first 5 died due to tree branches and/or handlebars stabbing them in the chest and crushing organs causing bleeding to death....1 externally and 4 internally.

2 years ago I bought a Tek vest and I wear it ALWAYS. Plus obviously a helmet...EVEN when I do short low-speed tuning test-drives in the back yard. You just never know...

No

but almost did two years ago....very scary!!!

I lost my uncle; (my dad's best buddy) 20 years ago this winter. I was just a little one at the time, but he is dearly missed. He and his fiance went through a hole in the ice on Irodequoit Bay. I think of him everytime I get out on the ice.

Here's to everyone having a safe winter season, think with your head, not your "balls."

:div20:

Amen. I lost my uncle too, back in 75, when he went through the ice on a GPX433. His only surviving brother (3 others all died young too), still rides (just bought a new Apex in fact) and so do his two boys. I've also heard all too many of the horror stories over the years. This is a dangerous sport, and you must respect the dangers. I hope everyone takes a minute and slows down a bit, ride sober and get home safe.

In 1990 I lost a friend that was drinking and riding. He tried crossing a poorly lit intersection and wound up hitting a semi. THe guy he was riding with, another friend of mine, was in the hospital for 4 months. He still rides sleds.

In 1999 I lost an ex co-worker that I had ridden a few times with. He was going way too fast and missed a stop sign and got hit by a car. He left his wife and two little girls behind.

A very good friend and mentor of mine was going out on Christmas Eve and got on his sled and went into cardiac arrest. He was unable to be revived.

Unfortunately I have lost several people I know to snowmobile accidents.
Also, only in the last 5-8 years. Mostly going too fast for conditions. (Was hard to hurt yourself on the old evinrude unless it rolled over on top of you).

People need to give these machines the respect they deserve.

AMEN

Did he work for GES?

I've known 2 ppl that have been killed in crashes. one was hit by a car (drunk driver) while waiting at an intersection, and the other went out of control and hit a tree. I wasn't close to either of them but i knew them both a little.

Back in 02, lost a good friend at Tip Up Town. Wen't on a 5 minute ride from his cabin to show a non snowmobiler Tip Up Town. The friend just droped in to say hi and Tony took him for a quick loop. Thay got hit buy a drunk driver, thay were only going 25 M.P.H. The lady that hit them died, my friend Tony died, and our other friend lived, but has been in and out of the hospitals ever since with one problem or another.
I still go to Tip Up Town every year, it means more to me now than ever, although it does have a kinda wierd feeling driving across the ice. Just can't explain it.

Very Sobering Thread.

Be safe or........

Yes he did !

Did you know Greg ?

lost not a "close" friend, but a friend none less this past winter. he was the passenger on a sled that was riding on the side of the road and hit a snowplow. conditions were very stormy at the time of the accident and the driver never reacted in time.

edit:sp

My father in a fluke motor cycle accident three years ago, right in front of my wife, me and my brother he hit a big pine tree right in front of his house, screwing around going way too fast, I did CPR but he was gone when he hit, gave me post traumatic stress, very hard, slow down!

i was thinking the same thing.......you cant tell me that after reading some of these tragedies, your not gonna think twice about slowin down or riding with in your capabalities

One of my best friends fathers died in an accident at Tug Hill about 6 winters ago. His son, who's my age, and a couple of my friends were coming up over a hill and a sled had broken down in the middle of the trail. He hit it and died of internal injuries caused by an unopened beer can in the pocket of his bibs that broke some ribs. He died in his sons arms. It was tough on all of us because we were all real close friends. We took about a years break from riding after that. Now we all ride again and his son rides the sled that his dad had the accident on. It's one of those things that you think will never happen to anyone you know until it does.

I said yes. Pretty painful to recall.....

I would not call him a close friend, I went to high school with him and only saw him a few times over the next six years after high school.

He and I had some mutual friends and they invited me to go to his cabin riding. We were riding in an area that he knew very well. It was dusk and we were riding in a ditch that was a marked trail. He was first, another guy second, me third and two guys behind me.

I ride fast, this guy rode twice as fast and he was a hell of a rider. Hard to explain but when we the trail crossed a road it appeared to dump into a parking lot. The road was to my left, and straight ahead it appeared as though the trail now went through the woods seperated by a row of pine trees from the ditch/road. The two guys in front were probably 75 yards ahead of me and I was trying hard to catch them. Then I saw some strange movements of a tail light which I knew seemed abnormal so I slowed down. As I came up the second guy runs up and he had this horendous look in his face and he says:

"He's dead, a cable took his head off" and he is losing it.

The guys behind me still have not caught up. The guys sled is up the "trail" 50 ft and he lying on his back about 10 yards past two posts with an unmarked steel cable stretched across about 3ft high. I run up to him and I see his helmet not on his body. I am freaking out now. I get closer and realize his helmet is off but his head is still on. But he is definitely dead. No pulse and already turning blue. You can see that the cable caught him right in the neck. The rest of the guys show up and take over CPR. I take my sled down the trail to a house and call 911.

As I am coming back a whole family of sleds with kids is just starting down the same mistaken "trail" we were on. I stop them and tell them what happened. The one lady says she is a nurse and they all go down the trail a little to see if they can help.

I wait for the Ambulance and a sheriff drives up. I tell him that a guy hit a cable and I think he's dead. You know what he says to me? What are you doing on my land! I then tell him we thought it was a trail and why does he have an unmarked cable across the road. He did not speak. Ambulance pulls up and the rest is history.

After the road crossing the trail actually stayed in the ditch, but this road was a straight shot off the trail and it had tracks down it. I don't know if the guy that died went down this section on purpose or not but like I said, he knew the area well and he was flying down that section like he had done it before. There were tracks that actually went under this cable. I don't know if it was the Sheriff riding on his own land or what. But the guy was not the first down this "trail".

To add insult to injury they piss tested the second guy because they claimed that he hit him with his sled after he hit the cable and that is what killed him. This guy had his buddy die in front of him and then was charged with manslaughter. They evntually dismissed the charges.

I still ride fast, but I never will forget the absolute carnage of machine, body and family that our sport can cause.

Jeff

well my aunts friend that i ws friends with very very sad

no imediate friends but knew people and heard of lots.

my grandma used to live on a lake where i used to ride all the time and every year one or two people died going out on the lake before it was proproly frozen and sinking. some died in cars but most on sleds. and my uncle also almost got killed on this lake hitting a pressure crack wot going the ramp way not the wall way and totaled his sled but lived. my dads friend who i know quite well lost a brother to snowmobiling at night right near his house and cloths-lined himself in the next field over. came to the end of the field sooner than he thought in the poor conditions and hit an old fence that only had barb wire still on it, nearly cut his head right off.
my moms friends husband bought a new sled for him and his son and the first week his son hit a culver with him riding on the back. he didnt know how to drive and instead of hiting the brakes he just let off. the kid ducked and the father had a few ribs broken. one which stabed something and he almost blead to death internally. neither wearing helmets. the kid wont get on one and when the father just had to sell them again

I voted "no", but my cousin is paralized from the waist down because of a snowmobile accident. It was his own fault, he was riding alone with a hand injury that kept him from holding on tight. He did a jump, & when he landed he lost his grip, landed on his tail bone & that was it. He laid there on the trail, afriad he'd be run over. He took his helmet off & used it to pull himself off the trail. He's lucky he didn't freeze to death. I think of his accident periodicially when riding, especially when I start doing something I shouldn't be doing. That always brings me back to earth.

wow......I know it is hard for some people to relive these expirences but these stories could bepotentially saving the life of someone who is reading them now and remebers these stories to keep themselves in check.

It's amazing to hear so many of these stories that don't have alcohol involved or are at low speeds. Hopefully it reminds people that just cause you are sober or going slower doesn't mean that you can't get hurt or killed.

I am sorry to hear of all your losses.

Happy safe riding this year to everyone and just remember to stay alert and ride within you limitations

I would just add another lesson I took away from my experience. Those of us that lead, know our sleds, are confident in our abilities and know the areas/trails we are riding tend to get a cocky. I am pretty sure the guy I saw killed was pretty confident that he was just going to take some of his friends out in his stomping grounds for a little ride. Now he's dead.

There are lots off accidents at TUT. I think this particular accident is the one that happend just in front of my buddies cabin. My friend gave the guy a ride back to where his friends were staying. I can't imagine the story that he had to tell them.

There are always deaths at TUT... be carefull there everyone.

I have known 4 who died on sleds

i used to like to go really hard through the tight stuff and a buddy of mine liked the top end game (lakes and old railway lines)and he drove a mach z 800 .well one night he was following another guy on the railway line and tagged a tree. the guy in front of him was doing over 100 on speedo and said he was right there with him. he was 39 and after trying for years his wife was pregnant.I think most of us do or have ridden to the extreme at one time or another.thats why i used to ride!

snowmobiling has been my main thing most of my life and i have owned some pretty fast sleds, but way too many inexperienced riders are are buying big iron and truly have no business being on them.my friend had ridden about 15 years at that time , but riding at those speeds with only a couple feet either side ,at night ,in snow dust from another sled is gonna bite ya.150 h.p. sleds are very serious machines ,but i don't think they are given the respect they deserve.

keep in mind you have more than just yourselves to worry about!

"He's dead, a cable took his head off" and he is losing it.

The guys behind me still have not caught up. The guys sled is up the "trail" 50 ft and he lying on his back about 10 yards past two posts with an unmarked steel cable stretched across about 3ft high. I run up to him and I see his helmet not on his body. I am freaking out now. I get closer and realize his helmet is off but his head is still on. But he is definitely dead. No pulse and already turning blue. You can see that the cable caught him right in the neck. The rest of the guys show up and take over CPR. I take my sled down the trail to a house and call 911.

As I am coming back a whole family of sleds with kids is just starting down the same mistaken "trail" we were on. I stop them and tell them what happened. The one lady says she is a nurse and they all go down the trail a little to see if they can help.

I wait for the Ambulance and a sheriff drives up. I tell him that a guy hit a cable and I think he's dead. You know what he says to me? What are you doing on my land! I then tell him we thought it was a trail and why does he have an unmarked cable across the road. He did not speak. Ambulance pulls up and the rest is history.



This almost sounds too familair. No one died, but last year a few of my friends and my cousin and I were riding to the gas station about 5 minutes from my house wich we do every year. Were we live when we get snow at home it is mostly ditch banging. As we were going to get gas i was like the third or fourth one in line when i noticed my cousin throwing his hands in the air. Some jackass had put a steal cable attached to a pine tree and his mail box across the ditch. It was about 10:30 at night and i dont know how my cousin seen it, but it was a good thing that he did. After the whole incident had been over the cable was removed. We had to call the police and have them come and explain to the individual that he did not own the ditch and he could not put cable across it, someone could have died. Ever sense then i am very catious going through the ditch around his house.

Almost lost a freind. And almost did my self in once, changed the way I ride .

We had a neighbor up by our cabin hit a ice heave at high speed, paralyzed from the waist down, not a way to go thru life.

SLOW DOWN and ENJOY sledding, and stay SOBER

I did not vote, because it just scares me to no end to think about it. However I did come across and accident in the UP two years ago. Outside of Grand Marais, alcohol involved, wrong side of the trail, the man that died was sober, and on his side of the trail apparently doing abstlolutly nothing wrong. Seeing him laying in the middle of the trail with a couple of other riders coats covering his body was a life changing experience, I used to ride on the edge most of the time, but now, every corner I approach I almost stop, just trying to give myself some type of advantage over a situation. When its my time, it will just happen I know that, I just pray they can say that it was not my fault. I posted this same story in a similar thread last year, and said as horrible of a sight as it is, I think if everyone out there riding these virtual rockets saw something like this the trails just might be a little safer. As I said it changed my entire snowmobiling attitude, outlook, and habits. I still go fast, but it is usually in an are that I check first, and as always I know I am still taking a risk but I do that just by getting on a sled, just try to take some of the higher risks out. Great thread, and sorry to all those for their losses. And god bless that unknown mans family. I dont know his name, but think about him every time I get on a sled, and thats close enough for me.

RIDE SAFE, SLOW DOWN, AND STAY ON YOUR SIDE OF THE TRAIL.

Important stuff....To The Top.....

Three years ago on December 21st 2002 I lost my 23 year old brother. He was riding at Tug Hill with three of his friends. They were 4 miles away from the hotel when they hit a wash out. The first guy made it across okay, my brother made it across. They both got knocked around a little bit so they slowed down. The third guy saw the brake lights hit his brakes and got stuffed in the washout. He flew off landed on my brothers friend and the snowmobile went straight at my brother and rear ended him(two inches to the left he probably would be still alive). My brother got whipped back and hit his head on the hood of the other sled and crushed the back of his head.

I can't stand seeing this stuff. Take it easy out there we are doing this for fun.

Anthony

(Joseph E. Manzi R.I.P little brother)

We have lost a buddy a few times but thats just because he is always stoned :share_doobie:

Yes I have, he stopped on thin ice at night on the lake and fell through, we turned around to see where he was and all I found was an open hole in the ice, really sucked being there and could do nothing about it

About 15 years ago, I knew 2 adult brothers who drowned when their sleds went through the ice on Strawberry Lake (MI). One was an MD who just had a new baby daughter. A 3rd rider got out & was able to go for help, but by the time help arrived, it was too late. He later said he could hear them yelling for help in the darkness. he was totally helpless. Very knowledgeable, but they got caught in a snow squall, lost their bearings & ventured too closed to the moving water of the river. It was very tragic!!