Ontario Provincial Police officials pleased that enforcement and patrols on snowmobile Trails in the Orillia area and elsewhere are paying off with few fatalities.
We are halfway through snowmobile safety week.
OPP Chief Superintendent Bill Grodzinski on organized trails there has been a signigiciant reduction in fatal accidents because of the presence of the OPP and Snowmobile Trail Officer Patrolers.
He says last year 17 people died as a result of snowmobile collisiions and of those 17, only 3 were on trails, the rest were not.
Grodzinski says the bottom line is you are a lot safer on a groomed, patrolled trail.
He say those 17 deaths were a decline from the year before where 21 people died in snowmobile accidents and there has been a steady decrease over the past few years.
Grodzinski says however the three things they continue to see in sled related crashes are agressive driving, usually off the trail, not wearing a helmet and of course drinking and driving.
He says alcohol and sledding just dont mix.
Grodzinski also says police would like to see more people taking a training course dealing with the safe operation of their sleds, especially when they are so powerfull and can travel so fast.
He says its especially important that young people develop the skills neded to hoperate these powerfull machines and the best way to do that is take a course with trained experienced sled operator.
