LAKE CAMPBELL A boating accident on Lake Campbell? In January? Yup. It happened, but it wasnt your typical boat rather, it was a homemade ice runner, and the person manning it didnt suffer any injuries.
Thats the word from Jeff Grendler, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks conservation officer in Brookings County, in a conversation Tuesday with the Brookings Register.
Its basically a triangle with ice blades on the front and one on each side of the triangle and then with a wind-surfing staff with sail on it, he said, describing an ice runner, which is also known as an iceboat. You get on it and you drive it with some type of rudder Im not sure exactly how they operate.
Grendler said the man got on the ice runner on Saturday and began driving it on the lake. He wasnt sure if the man intentionally went across an ice heave on the north side of the lake or if the wind was strong enough to blow him unintentionally across it. Either way, he ended up in the drink, so to speak.
The incident was reported between 10 and 10:30 a.m. No rescue was required and it also helped that the water was relatively shallow. Grendler didnt know the mans name or age, while Brookings County Assistant Sheriff Scott Sebring said the man was from Brookings.
He got out and an individual picked him up in a vehicle and, I believe, took him back to shore and he left and later returned to retrieve (the ice runner), Grendler said.
He pointed out that, most of the time, rescue operations arent necessary when vehicles go through the ice.
Most of them arent really rescues, other than they rescue them from the cold and the wet, Grendler said. Most of the time these, whether its a vehicle or something like (an ice runner) that goes through the water, a majority of the time they crawl out of the vehicle before it sinks or rests on the bottom, and they get on the ice and they seek warmth and shelter.
He said that, since the ice runner was homemade, theres no damage estimate available.
Whatever a PVC staff and a sail and some strings and some 2x4s cost and a seat its difficult to tell, Grendler said.
Reporting requirements
Since the ice runner doesnt qualify as a boat, it doesnt qualify as a boating accident, Grendler said, adding that theres no requirement that incidents such as this be reported to agencies such as the state GF&P or the sheriffs office. Thats primarily because since the incident didnt occur on a roadway, its considered to have taken place on private property and, as such, no accident report is necessary.
Wed like to know, (but) the only requirement that they actually have, if they go through, is they have to, the requirement is to get (the vehicle) out, he said. Frankly, for the most part, most people get them out within especially vehicles because they want their money from the insurance company a couple days after they go through.
The removal also ensures theres no navigation hazard for other people who use the lake, alongside the potential for pollution from, say, fuel and oil leaking from the submerged vehicle.
In closing, Grendler offered further insights into the recent spate in similar incidents around the region.
For the most part, most of these vehicles that have been going through the ice this year have been they get disoriented coming off the lake at night and they cross a heave or pressure ridge and theyre breaking through, he noted. Those heaves are not crossable unless theres some type of ice bridge and an ice bridge is basically a manmade bridge that they place out there, Minnesota has a lot of them, thats done by resorts and things like that.
Grendler continued, These heaves are not crossable; its weak ice and they will go through. At night, just be careful where youre going and take it slow. If they have a GPS on their phone or a GPS, use it because its easy to get disoriented at night.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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