Speed and alcohol continue to be main factors in the majority of Wisconsin snowmobile deaths. As the snowmobile season closes for the year , a DNR warden says a majority of the snowmobilers killed this season saw speed and alcohol as the main contributing factors...
"....almost two-thirds of the fatalities involved one or both of those factors, alcohol consumption and speed. Going too fast for conditions or too fast at night...."
...that's Conservation Warden Supervisor Dave Walz of Woodruff talking about this year's fatalities. He says 10 of the 16 fatalities involved either of the two main contributing factors.
Walz notes many of the people killed did not have safety training....
"...of the fatalities we saw this year, only three of the 16 individuals had snowmobile safety certification. If a person is born on or after January 1, 1985, then they would have had to have completed (safety training). So many of these individuals didn't(require) it, but we see for those folks that do take the class, even if they aren't required to have it they tend to have a little better understanding of the laws...."
Among the fatalities was an Illinois man who crashed in Arbor Vitae who was the first seasonal fatality, with three deaths in Iron county, two Oneida county fatalities and one in Price county.
