Stupid Snowmobile Accident Today!

Today was a nice sunny winter day and I did not want to waste it in the office, so I headed out to do some remote work by snowmobile. The conditions were perfect for traveling (did about 100km) and I was accessing lots of sites easily, but on the big lakes there were many patches of glare, slippery ice between the rough snow sections.

In the late afternoon I was doing a wide sweeping turn out of a bay when I drove off a hardpacked snow section and the carbide ski-runners bit into a smooth sheet of ice. Because I was in a right turn at about 60km/hr the rear-end of the snowmobile instantly spun around to the left and launched me off the machine.

From what I remember and judging by what hurts now; I hit the ice with my the left side of my head first, then my elbows, then my left hip and knee. I thought the snowmobile was going to land on top of me, but by luck it spun away to the right and even stayed up-right. I laid on the ice for a while trying to get my head straight, I tried to get up a couple times but my body was just not able to function yet.

I was about 3 km down the lake from a group of occupied ice huts and I had intermittent radio communication back to my work centre, so I was not completely cut-off.

I had a large survival/first-aid kit on the snowmobile, plus a small PSK in my pocket and a mini-kit on my belt, they were all of little use at this time because for about 5 minutes I could not even sit-up.

I flexed and moved parts of my body to check if anything was badly broken, lots of parts hurt but all seemed to work. After about 5 minutes I managed to sit-up and then slowly stand-up. My snowmobile was still running and after a quick contact with work on the radio, I called it a day and carefully made it back to my truck; where I loaded the sled and then drove home. Had a major headache and sore lower back!

The only physical damage was a cracked LCD screen on the 2-way radio that was on my hip, that is also the part of my body that now hurts the most.

The best move I did all day was wearing a quality full-face helmet, if I had not been wearing a helmet I would be dead.

I probably should not have tried to turn so sharply on glare ice and traveling with a partner would also have been a good idea.

I think it is my mistakes that I learn from the most?

Mike

"I think it is my mistakes that I learn from the most?"

Of course! I think it's a law of some kind. I'll bet it will be a looooooong time before you forget this little episode.

You don't learn as much from your successes unless you dislocate your shoulder patting yourself on the back.

Fate just gave a little finger flip. Maybe you were getting too cocky?

Good move with the helmet. I hear those steel plates in your head always set off the airport alarms.

Sue

Like they say, experience is a hard teacher. At least you managed to get back in one piece. With a little bad luck it could've ended up a whole lot worse...

As I was reading your post I was thinking to myself, "Man, I hope he was wearing a helmet." Good to know you were! Does your company issue you the helmet?

I know with motorcycle helments the guideline was if the helmet hit the ground in an accident it had to be replaced even if it looked okay. The impact stresses would cause microfractures in the hard shell, weakening it so that the next time it could fail catastrophically.

Is this the same with snowmoblie helemts? Especially since it hit the ice.

-Blast

Thanks Sue, I always wondered why the alarms ALWAYS go off and then I get a major search of my body everytime that I fly!

I have found that when I am getting too cocky, God provides me with a healthy dose of humility!

SwampDonkey, I am glad that you were wearing a helmet also. Damage to ice fields this late in the year isn't repairable. It sounds like it is a good time to sit beside a lighted fireplace, have a hot drink, and relax while the bruises heal. Thanks for sticking around!

Hi All,

Thanks for the nice replies.

Yes my employer does issue me my helmet and the one I was wearing is a new modular version that I received last year. It shows no sign of damage (I will have to check it closer for "micro-cracks) but the clear lake ice where my head hit was sure cracked-up.

The left side of my head/face is still sore/numb this morning and my hip is bruised where my radio was.

I know as I was not thinking about turning the snowmobile on the changing ice surface when the machine spun, because I was looking ahead at an approaching narrows to check it for open water there.

My safety gear (helmet) saved my life yesterday. If the impact did not kill me then I would have been left laying on the ice alone as night approached.

My wife is after me today to build shelving in the basement to store my outdoor gear, I tried playing the sympathy card but it is not working.

Mike

SwampDonkey, even if you were wearing a helmet when you struck your head, shouldn't you go get an examination for possible head injury?

Medical folks, if this is incorrect please say so. Thanks.

It is easy to forget how fast you are going.

Glad I don't live where you can use a snowmobile in March!!

Good to hear that you will be ok, lesson learned.

Thanks for the concern nurit, we will see how my head feels tomorrow, left side of my face is still numb and swollen.

March is great snowmobiling up here, it gets a little slushy in April, and almost never have any snow on the ground in May.

Mike

Another reason safety helmet makers insist helmets should not be reused after an accident is that the energy absorbing component, which looks like styrofoam, is intended to compress and distribute force over a large area. The outer shell may look fine but the "foam" may have done it's job and is now less effective at absorbing energy. I've also known that material to become harder with age after picking up a motorcycle helmet I had laying around for years.
If the foam liner has become harder, more force is going to be transmitted to your noggin. noggin. (That last one was a joke)

My symptoms were not going away, so I called Ontario Tele-health. This phone service connects you with an on-call nurse, who said go to the hospital, now.

So I spent the evening in the emergency ward. After many tests (including a CT Scan, blood and urine) and lots of poking/prodding it was determined that I have a concussion and strained muscles in my neck, hips and groin.

Just like it said on the internet treatment is to take painkillers, get lots of rest and take some time off work. As it turns out I had planned to take all next week off anyway.

Maybe I can still get out of building those shelves for my wife?

The up-side is that I did not major damage to myself, and I got 5 chapters of Cody Lundin's book read in the waiting room.

Mike

Thanks for the update. Concussion and strained muscles can't be fun, but I'm relieved to hear you have a clear diagnosis and no major damage.

I'm guessing you don't run a studded track? All of my sleds are studded just for that reason. I was riding an unstudded 340cc fan-cooled years ago and the back end went out while I was riding along an icy curve.

Luckily, I counter-steered, hit the brake, and it kicked back in line; but after that I studded all my sleds. It makes a noticeable difference in traction and handling. Like snow-chains for snowmobiles if that makes any sense.

You just have to remember to change to a slightly deeper set of carbides as well. This is because, on certain sleds, studding the track will cause it to grip too much in the rear and make it understeer slightly (which isn't as bad as snap oversteer, but it can be an issue), but changing the carbides to match the studs you're using fixes that.

Anyway, hope you feel better. Snowmobiles can be very dangerous. I figure snowmobiling along trails is often tantamount to playing a game of "dodge the trees."

Hi Paul810,

I agree with you that a studded track would solve my problem of going into spins on glare ice. I was told in the past that my sled, a 2006 Ski-doo Expedition TUV 600 Liquid could not be studded due to the in-tunnel cooling system. I did a search tonight and there is one listing for studs using tunnel protectors, I will have to explore this option?

The other problem I have with the regular (unstudded) track and carbide runners is if you stop on glare ice the carbides bite in and the track just spins around without traction. You end-up stopped on a completely flat, snowfree surface. This problem is worse when loading the sled on a ramp into a truck if the area is icy. You have to take a run at it, then mash the brakes as you reach the top of the ramp or you will slam into the rear cab of the truck.

I do not know how much more snowmobiling I will be doing this season as the doctor put me on light-duty till my concussion/headaches go away. I will look at studding the snowmobile track for next season.

Thanks, Mike

Ski-Doo sleds generally come with tunnel protectors, however the stock ones usually aren't designed for long studs as they're too short to protect the heat exchanger from them (the long studs). Therefore, you often have to swap out the protectors for longer ones. Often times they just slide right in real easy. Here's a pic to give you an idea of what they look like:





Carbides will usually help with driving on ice, as they can usually bite in pretty well. Where they don't help is when you are driving on roads and on, say, an aluminum ramp. This is because the surface is simply too hard and unforgiving for the studs to really bite into, so you have to take it easy on those surfaces regardless of whether you have studs or not.

On snowmobiles it's always best to try and avoid traveling on roads as much as you can, anyway. They prefer to stay on snow covered trails.

Thanks for the great advice Paul.

Mike

Hey Paul810,

I had a look inside the tunnel of my sled today, I did not see any tunnel protectors and the track lugs are only about an inch below the cooling fins. Sometimes when I hit a bump at speed, I hear the track touch the tunnel/fins.

Maybe I need the track adjusted and I do not know if there is enough room for studs? I will have the dealer check it out.

Mike

Yea, if you've got a good dealership I would talk to one of the tech's there and see what they say. Best thing to do would be to have it studded, have the tunnel protectors added, and have the carbides changed to slightly deeper set all at one time. It won't be cheap, even if you did it yourself, but I feel it's worth it.

Also, If you're bottoming out the suspension often, you might need to re-adjust it for your weight as well.

I agree with what others have said: the helmet needs to be replaced or serviced to have parts replaced.

A helmet is engineered to protect your head. It is not engineered to protect itself from a serious impact, and your impact was clearly serious. You can't necessarily tell if it's compromised just by looking at it: the critical parts aren't on the surface, inside or out. The helmet manufacturer probably has a web page with good info.

Also, any time you hit your head that hard a run by the hospital is a good idea ASAP. You may not notice a serious injury for as long as a couple of hours (see: Natasha Richardson). Ruptured spleens etc are also no good.