Minnesota Drivers
By Mitch Berg
What do you get when you take Minnesota drivers – the types who tailgate at 60 mph on glare ice while telling their friend via cell phone “I’m a good driver”) – with ice?
Jacob Schmidt and Russell Omann were trying to reach a fish house last Thursday night when their truck broke through the ice about 200 feet off shore. Omann climbed out through the passenger window and Schmidt got out through the rear window of the cab.
Not sure what this fascination Minnesotans have with driving on ice as the temperatures soar into the 40s. Maybe it’s overconfidence – the misplaced hubris of a people that considers itself winter people (even though, compared to North Dakotans, they may as well be from Nebraska or some such).
Or maybe it’s that Minnesotans have a streak of “Let’s take a stupid chance”, a gene that bids them to tailgate on glare ice, or snowmobile at 80mph through unfamiliar woods, or vote for a pro wrestler.
January 10th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
As another non-native Minnesotan I have long puzzled this fascination with icy stupidity. I live near one of the large metro lakes and every year the Logical Husband and I place bets with one another as to a) when the first ice house goes out (usually within a foot of open water) and b) when the first vehicle rescue has to be done on “our” lake. I didn’t think I could be stunned at the chances that people took (when it comes to ice fishing) but they surprised me again this year. I saw houses go out at the height of our 40 degree string of days.
It makes you wonder…
LL
January 10th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I wouldn’t drive on ice at any time, for any reason. Perhaps if I lived on the lake and really, really knew it well. I’ve seen way too many ice-outs in the dead of winter when it’s been below zero for weeks.
Ice is never “safe”.
January 10th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I doubt I would, either – although I’ve been amazed by some feats of ice transit engineering. During the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviets drove convoys, including tanks, across Lake Ladoga; it was the only route into the city, and only when the lake was utterly frozen. It musta been some kind of frozen!
Also, the various installations on the Ross Ice Shelf – but that’s ice that’s hundreds of feet thick…