Two people escaped injury when their vehicle went through the ice on the South Saskatchewan River at the Clarkboro Ferry crossing last weekend.
Warman Fire Chief Russ Austin said the incident occurred at about 10:30 p.m. on Friday, April 7. The vehicle was travelling eastbound.
“Apparently when they went across the river in the morning there was some water on top of the ice,” said Austin. “And coming back in the dark, the river was open but they must have thought it was similar, and they ended up breaking through the ice just as they were in the mid-point of the river.
“They self-extricated themselves and walked across the ice to the west bank.”
Austin said the incident was witnessed by an acreage owner on the east bank of the river. The acreage owner saw the vehicle go down and immediately called 911. Warman Fire Rescue, Corman Park Police, and Saskatoon RCMP responded.
“When we arrived we could see the car’s headlights still shining underneath the ice,” said Austin.
“The acreage owner who witnessed the incident came down to meet us at the crossing and told us that there were two occupants. They said they were okay and nobody else was in the vehicle. They called across to him from the other side of the river. The RCMP arrived on their side of the river and Corman Park Police attended on our side.”
The vehicle is still submerged in the river. Austin said conditions are too dangerous for any salvage work yet.
“There’s no real way to go out on the ice to retrieve and no way to get out on the water, so we’ll have to wait until the salvage people can figure out a way to pull it out,” he said.
Austin said Warman Fire Rescue members are called almost every year, usually in spring, to rescue motorists who have gone through the ice. He said crossing the river on the ice is always extremely hazardous.
“When anyone asks us if the ice is safe to cross, we never say that it’s safe, because it’s moving water,” said Austin. “It might be 40 below for two weeks and the ice might be four feet thick one day; but the water eats away at it and the next day it might be four inches. So there’s no way to predict it.
“Any moving water is never safe to cross.”
He said people need to be aware of the risks when venturing out onto the ice.
“I know some people get upset, but depending on river flows; there are parameters of Mother Nature that wouldn’t allow us to do a rescue,” he said. “If river flows are past a certain amount of cubic meters, then no rescuer is allowed to go in the water. So they could be on their own.”
He advised motorists to play it safe.
“It’s not that much more of an inconvenience to use the new bridge in Saskatoon,” he said. “It only adds 12 minutes to your travel time.”