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Last week a head-on snowmobile crash in Arbor Vitae claimed three lives and boosted the season total of fatalities to 13. While the crash is still under investigation, the DNR’s Web Site notes on the incident’s cause read “speed/failure to stay to the right.”

Bob Goodin, a member of Hodag Sno-Trails club who has been riding snowmobiles since the 1960s, believes the crash demonstrates that safety education is crucial for riders in an era of increasingly powerful sleds. Goodin and fellow Hodag Sno-Trails member Steve Winchell are working to promote safe riding by organizing rider certification courses for local youths and adults.

Goodin said that while many people point to alcohol as the primary factor in snowmobile fatalities, inexperience and a lack of familiarity with trails are as important.

“It’s a fun, safe sport if it’s done properly, but the public needs to be more aware of the dangers of snowmobile riding,” Goodin said. “The trail system hasn’t changed but the sleds keep getting bigger and bigger.”

Goodin said many tourists are inexperienced riders who are unfamiliar with local trail systems. He said that trails were developed when sleds were much smaller and the 16-foot easements that defines many local trail systems leaves a small safety margin for high-speed riding.

“You can come up for a weekend and rent a 600cc sled that can do 100 mph. Unless you know the trail system you can get into real trouble,” Goodin said.

Goodin also believes that sled manufacturers and dealers are irresponsibly marketing high-powered sleds by showing ads featuring extreme speeds.

“The dealers and manufacturers aren’t being responsible about the way they show snowmobiling,” Goodin said.

Goodin believes the future of the sport depends on a greater effort to encourage safe riding.

“Whatever happens in any given county will effect the whole sport. People need to understand they have to slow down or the sport will go away,” said Goodin. “On a snowmobile sign you’re information signs are eight inches high and at 55 mph that looks like a postage stamp.”

Goodin said that local riders are more likely to ride safely than tourists, because of their experience with the trail systems and the number of miles they ride each year.

“The tourists come up here and they just let er snap,” Goodin said. “They’ve got the money and the sled and they’ve got to get as much riding in as they can in four or five days. People are trying to have too much fun in a short amount of time and they’re not being safe.”

Goodin pointed to the efforts of members of Hodag Sno-Trails to broaden the reach of the safety certification classes to adults. Current regulation require any operator born after 1985 to have completed a safety certification course. To date courses put on by Hodag Sno-Trails have certified 31 young people.

Steve Winchell, a retired patrol sergeant from the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department, is on volunteer safety instructor who has taken on an active role in safety training. Also a member of Hodag Sno-Trails, Winchell believes safety certification should be an emphasis in the snowmobile community.

“The more safety is stressed, the less fatalities and injuries we have each year,” Winchell said. “With the snowmobile safety course, it will do the same thing.”

Winchell said that while adults are not required to take the course, he tries to encourage adult participation.

“We encourage adults to attend. We have a certain number of spaces set aside for adults and we will not turn any adults away,” said Winchell.

Winchell said operating the safety course involves coordinating with the DNR to receive materials and working with recreational officers Jim Adams and Brad Fogarty of the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department. Adams and Fogarty have developed a power point presentation to work alongside the DNR’s safety information packets. The six-hour course normally takes place at the Oneida County Law Enforcement Center or at Holiday Acres Resort.

“The first step we are taking right now is training the young people to ride responsibly and hopefully that will filter up to the parents,” said Winchell.

Gary Eddy, DNR administrator for snowmobiles and ATV’s, said while rider experience can be a factor in snowmobile fatalities, he does not believe it is the main factor. Eddy said 14 of 25 fatalities in the 2007-08 season involved riders with over 100 hours of experience and for eight of those fatalities the experience was unknown.

“Our statistics ever since we started tracking have been night time, speed and alcohol. As far as experience level, it’s a factor but it’s not a main category,” said Eddy.

Eddy said the best way to make trails safer under current regulations is to maintain an enforcement presence in the trail system, something the DNR struggles to do.

“Our best tool to combat that is visible enforcement presence out on the trails and lakes and that gets difficult for us because, strictly as the DNR, our enforcement capability is limited,” Eddy said.

Eddy said enforcement efforts are enhanced in counties like Oneida and Vilas, where there are full-time sheriff’s department personnel assigned to duties on the trails. In other counties that’s not the case, and the DNR has only $400,000 in grant money to spread around the state to enhance enforcement efforts.

Eddy believes human factors play the causal role in accidents and safety education requirements for adults could help, but they would need the support of the snowmobile community at large.

“With any changes, if you don’t have the support from the snowmobile community it’s not going to move anywhere when it gets to the legislature,” said Eddy.

Eddy agreed that more powerful machines require riders to be more conscious of their ability levels.

“The machines are much faster than they were when the trails were created,” Eddy said. “The designs of the sleds have allowed people to feel more comfortable at higher speeds and those speeds can exceed the operators ability or experience levels.”

Ultimately, whether or not snowmobile operators drive responsibly will remain an issue of personal responsibility, but it’s possible that the high rate of fatalities will cause the community to look closely at safety efforts, the way the motorcycle community did in the 1980s.

Eddy said the bottom line is that most people ride safely now and he reiterated that drinking alcohol is the surest way to increase the risk of a fatal accident while operating a snowmobile.

“There are tens of thousands of people every year who go out they and enjoy the trails safely. We’re talking about the small percentage of operators who make poor decisions and operate in an unsafe manner or make the decision to combine snowmobiling and alcohol.”

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