Machines sink in 2 separate thin ice incidents in Frontenac County, owners unharmed

Jeff Green | Dec 29, 2024

The Frontenac OPP were called to respond for two separate incidents involving motorized snow machines, that went through the ice and sit at the bottom of the lake.

On December 28, 2024 Frontenac OPP members were called to an area on Shabomeka Lake, in North Frontenac Township, by a resident who reported snowmobile tracks leading to a large hole in the ice. An investigation by officers located the rider at his residence and confirmed that there were no other passengers unaccounted for.

The snowmobile was approximately twenty feet from the shore when it crashed through the ice. The rider was able to escape the sinking machine and made his way back to a dock unharmed. The snowmobile remains on the bottom of the lake in ten feet of water. The Ministry of Environment (MOE) has been notified and the responsibility for removing it from the water, falls on the owner.

On December 28, 2024 around 12:30 pm, Frontenac OPP were called to an area of Sydenham Lake in South Frontenac Township for a side-by-side (UTV) that crashed through the ice and sunk to the bottom of the lake. The rider was able to escape the sinking machine and made his way back to shore freezing cold and soaking wet, but unharmed. The machine went through the ice approximately one-hundred feet out from the shoreline. It is not known how deep the lake is in that location.

The Ministry of Environment (MOE) has been notified and the responsibility for removing it from the water, falls on the owner.The extreme fluctuation between warm and cold temperatures means - no Ice Is safe Ice