By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
A snowmobile that sunk through open water near Squaw Island January 8 was recovered one week later from Lake Orion.
The first sinker of the season, the snowmobile was recovered after a group of men hooked it from 15 feet below the surface and pulled it up. No professional removal companies were used.
The owner, a 29-year-old Orion Township man, and the passenger, a 25-year-old woman from Ortonville, were riding the snowmobile across Lake Orion when they ventured too closely to open water near Squaw Island.
Witnesses reported that upon hitting the open water the driver attempted to gun the snowmobile. However he didn’t make it and the machine began to sink.
The witness, a South Andrews Street lake front owner, called 911 before running out to assist the victims who had swum to the edge of the lake and successfully climbed out, uninjured. The witness invited the victims back to his house to warm up.
The Orion Township Fire Department and Lake Orion Police Department responded to the call and arrived to the scene for investigation.
Although Michigan law requires the immediate report of snowmobile damages over $100, Lake Orion Police Chief Jerry Narsh said the driver refused to cooperate.
‘The driver denied being on the snowmobile at all or that it was at the bottom of the lake. He said they were ice skating behind a friend’s snowmobile when the driver saw the open water and drove away, causing them to fall into the lake,? Narsh said.
Neither the driver nor the passenger had ice skates with them, and the witness confirmed he saw them drive the snowmobile into the water.
‘They were not illegally intoxicated. The officer ran him through the system and he was valid, he had no open warrants. The only thing we were left with was the question is there something illegal about the snowmobile’was it stolen? What’s the purpose of not admitting you are in a crash?? Narsh said.
The driver was arrested for failure to report a snowmobile crash and obstructing/hindering police in an investigation.
‘From an investigative standpoint we have to do our job in filing the necessary reports. We are here to help. If you don’t know the laws, you might want to check to know what you are legally required to do.?
A couple of days later the driver correctly reported the snowmobile accident to the LOPD.
Whether or not he knew of the open water near Squaw Island’caused from a drainpipe according to local lakefront owners’is second to the fact that both passenger and driver survived the feat.
Narsh reminds snowmobiles there is a local ordinance prohibiting the purposeful attempt to cross open water on local lakes, including under the bridges of Lake Orion.
Apart from local fines machine users can incur, if the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is notified, which they were in this case, state fines are possible as well.
‘Most of the time these new machines are airtight and won’t release gas or oils, but we do give the owner a 24 hour period if they are lacking to have it removed, or we will come in and remove it and charge the owner /operator the cost of removing it,? Sgt. Bavarskas said from the MDNR Law Enforcement Division.
Depending on the circumstances’how deep the machine is, if a diver is required to hook it’the cost of removal can vary from $100 to $4,000, he said.
If any environmental damage is assessed from a leaky machine, the Department of Environmental Equality is also notified with their own protocol.