Snowmobilers please use common sense.

[Blaze]

For the snowmobilers on this site please use good common sense when on your sled. Alcohol and snowmobiles do not mix. You do not have to travel as fast as your sled will go either. Have fun but don't become a statistic. There has already been several serious accidents, some fatal. Don't think that it can't happen to you.

Take along a GPS, cell phone, first aide kit, and a blanket. Hypothermia is a real concern with an injured person on the trail. Remember, it will take more time to find you, and get rescue equipment to you if you do not know exactly where you are.

There will be sheriff deputies, local police and conservation officers on the trails.

Ride safe, have fun, and use some common sense.

[Line Dancin]

I dont think most snowmobilers have any common sense, or if they do have any it flys away when they strap on that helmet and start the sled. I got to hate them when i lived in northern Michigan

[Far Beyond Driven]

Oh please use my road to test if it will go 100+. Just because we're the only house around, we won't mind. And when you have to cross the 1 mile long by 1/2 mile wide corn field that I'm sure you have permission to run around, instead of crossing the middle, please run right down the edge of the field 40' from my house. If you can, time this between the hours of 9-10, when I'm trying to get my two small kids to sleep.

[Line Dancin]

when i was living up near Boyne City i was on a road like that. I was pulling out of my drive one day looked both ways nothing coming. Pull out and this sled went past me, had to be pushing close to 80 miles an hour he almost took out my truck. My drive sat in the low point between two hills and they would do this crap day in and day out. I also had a field next to my house and had them buzzing through there all the time as a short cut. I had my rifle range set up in that field. They just completely ignored the 100 orange no trespassing signs i had up. Finally called the state police and they started sitting there and giving out tickets. It just got old and i was sick of that crap.

Edit:

I had one guy that had the nerve while my brother and i were in MY FIELD shooting trap tell me him and his buddys planned on racing there and to get out of that field. I said it was mine and if you thought you could outrun a 12 gauge go ahead and try.

[Turfwrench]

Yes it can happen to anyone. I lost a friend many years back in the Keewenaw. He apparently was flying up the road to get to the trails and somebody pulled out of their driveway, never saw him coming. Such a sad thing to have to go through.

[sjk984]

3 of the 7 fatalities this year were new riders and alcohol was not sudpected in thfe accident. 1 woman was dismounted at 30 & hit by another in here group. This year with the later snow the weekends are more crowded than usual.

[danthebuilder]

3 of the 7 fatalities this year were new riders and alcohol was not sudpected in thfe accident. 1 woman was dismounted at 30 & hit by another in here group. This year with the later snow the weekends are more crowded than usual.

We're supposed to blame alcohol for all our problems and you and your facts aren't helping!

[silver one]

We're supposed to blame alcohol for all our problems and you and your facts aren't helping!

Lets be carful when grouping snowmobilers. Snowmobiles dont cause acceidnets. people do. I am a snowmobiler and a safe one. along with alot of other snowmobilers I know.

You need to be careful. like Dan states here. its not snowmobilers its the alcohol. No different then getting drunk and going hunting or boating.

I always tell my kids dont blame guns for somone being murdered by one.blame the person who pulled the trigger. Snowmobiles cant use logic or common sense only people can.

[Line Dancin]

I said most not all that i have had interactions with and that traveled the road i lived on, and it seems like i ran into more idiots than decent people. I had sleds also when living up there. I also had respect for other people lands and didn't do a top speed everywhere i went. If i did want to play i went down to the east jordan snowmobile club where they had a track set up and saftey people and eqipment there. I guess i learned my lesson from an accident i had when i was 14 and hit a deer on my dads quad and ended up in the hospital with a concussion and they thought a broken back. I am also suffering back problems now from that accident as i went over the handle bars and hit a tree. I was only doing 35 - 40 as that was top speeed on that qaud. After that i was afraid of hitting another one without anything around me to protect me a little more.

[strik]

Lets be carful when grouping snowmobilers. Snowmobiles dont cause acceidnets. people do. I am a snowmobiler and a safe one. along with alot of other snowmobilers I know.

You need to be careful. like Dan states here. its not snowmobilers its the alcohol. No different then getting drunk and going hunting or boating.

I always tell my kids dont blame guns for somone being murdered by one.blame the person who pulled the trigger. Snowmobiles cant use logic or common sense only people can.

Good point

It allways seem to be the 10% of the bad apples that we remember

I cant say much this year i belive the guys will not see the sleds out

The way this winter is going

Take Care

[Daybreak]

Or stay in the Backcountry! I know its hard to do that Downstate, but here in the UP I can ride all weekend and never see another sled. I ride off-trail in the deep stuff and I only need to worry about trees and stumps...Not drunks and idiots! We have many people die up here every year on sleds...ALL of them EVERY year are on the marked trails. Stop "diamond pounding" on the trails and take your sled into the WOODS...where its more fun anyways!

Get off the main trails which all lead to and from a Bar!...leave that for the speed freaks and drunks!

[Blaze]

As previously stated, it's not the snowmobile it's the operator....and when alcohol/ and or speed is factored into the equation the problems occur.

[sjk984]

I have riden with a lot of sober irresponsible riders. My best friend is a paraplegic cause of a cable a cross a gas well entrance in the back country

[picman]

I said most not all that i have had interactions with and that traveled the road i lived on, and it seems like i ran into more idiots than decent people. I had sleds also when living up there. I also had respect for other people lands and didn't do a top speed everywhere i went. If i did want to play i went down to the east jordan snowmobile club where they had a track set up and saftey people and eqipment there. I guess i learned my lesson from an accident i had when i was 14 and hit a deer on my dads quad and ended up in the hospital with a concussion and they thought a broken back. I am also suffering back problems now from that accident as i went over the handle bars and hit a tree. I was only doing 35 - 40 as that was top speeed on that qaud. After that i was afraid of hitting another one without anything around me to protect me a little more.

Your story is the exact reason anyone riding a sled or ATV should be wearing a Tek vest! That's not to say you will walk away without a scratch but they do substantially less the severity of the blows your body takes.

[DarkBlue]

Some of the worst accidents I have seen have involved snowmobiles. If it's not alcohol as a factor than it's speed or inexperience, and all three combined is the worse animal out there. Saw a guy one night miss a turn to a trail from a road, and hit a snowbank and launched him along with his sled about 40 feet through the air straight into the side of a house and lived. The old timer inside never woke up until all the lights outside got his attention. Another night two guys on a sled were screaming across a lake, hit a small jette of land and launched themselves into a tree. I found markings on the tree almost fourteen feet above the ground. Both lived, but barely. I could go on and on. The thing about a snowmobile is if you do wreck, you usually have no one to blame but your self. And you give the other responsible riders a bad reputation. Same thing with motorcycles, or people that park boats on breakwalls, but those are topics for another day. Stay safe.

Chris