Alberta snowmobilers reminded to have proper safety equipment and a plan

EDMONTON – Winter means one thing for many Albertans: pulling out the snowmobile and enjoying the province’s vast rural space.

Snowmobile enthusiasts are being encouraged to enjoy the machines this winter but to also take safety precautions.

“Understand the area you’re going to, understand the hazards, go very well prepared, have the proper safety equipment and have a plan,” says Emerson North of STARS Edmonton.

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The Alberta Snowmobile Association has as many 6,000 members. Members are already marking dangerous areas.

“Barb wire fences, narrow bush crosses, lakes, rivers, stuff like that,” says Addam Saruk of the Alberta Snowmobile Association.

STARS also recommends finding out if you’ll have cell phone service before heading out to more remote areas. If not, leave an itinerary behind with a friend or family member. There is also new communication technology that can serve as a safety measure.

“There are devices you can get that you can operate with your cell phone that actually operate through a satellite,” explains North.

STARS says it responded to 20 snowmobile related calls last year. Emerson North says it can take 20 to 40 minutes for STARS Air Ambulance to arrive at a scene, and getting near a patient can be a challenge because of the remote areas snowmobile riders tend to travel.

“We’ll fly in to a parking lot, for example, if they’re in really tight trees and then we’ll go in with a group, extricate the patient, bring them out to the helicopter and then we’ll take off,” says North.

North says allowing youth to drive a snowmobile is particularly dangerous because of the power the machines possess.

“They’re much smaller. They don’t have the same strength and they’re large, very powerful, very fast machines, so they come with a lot of hazards.”

North says he’s seen the dangerous of improper use of a snowmobile first-hand.

“They’re quite sick patients. You get injuries to their chest or their pelvis or their legs which tends to be quite scary.”

Hypothermia can also be common.

The Alberta Snowmobile Association is currently travelling around the province setting up markers to let snowmobilers know of any hidden dangers like barbed wire fences.