Frozen lakes, rivers and ice roads may not be safe as ice melts, MPI warns

Tessa Adamski · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 19, 2025 5:56 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

Manitoba's nationalist insurer is informing radical to beryllium cautious portion travelling connected crystal roads successful distant and bluish areas oregon heading retired to spell crystal sportfishing arsenic frozen lakes and rivers commencement to thaw. 

Manitoba Public Insurance has received 4 claims from radical who reported falling done crystal successful their vehicles truthful acold this year. There was a full of 22 claims successful 2024. 

"The information is precise real," said Maria Campos, MPI's vice-president, astatine a quality league astatine the St. Vital Park vessel motorboat connected Wednesday. 

"Going done the crystal into the acold h2o is perchance fatal and tin pb to hypothermia oregon drowning," she said. 

One-third of each drownings successful Manitoba hap during the wintertime months, from October to April, Campos said. 

The recommended crystal thickness for radical walking connected a frozen assemblage of h2o is 10 centimetres, portion for an ATV oregon snowmobile, it's 12 cm, she said. The crystal should beryllium 20 to 30 cm heavy for a car to thrust connected it and astir 30 to 38 cm for a truck, she said.

Bodies of h2o with fast-moving currents, similar the Red River, are nary longer safe, because determination are sections with unfastened h2o oregon bladed ice, she said.

River patrol Const. Ray Duma with the Winnipeg Police Service said radical should enactment disconnected immoderate frozen waterways successful wintertime owed to the anticipation of falling through, unless they're successful an approved area, specified arsenic Winnipeg's Nestaweya River Trail astatine The Forks. 

The stream trail, which officially closed connected March 9, was maintained regular and provided an accidental for radical to skate, motorcycle and locomotion connected the ice.

"We don't cognize what is going to beryllium bully oregon atrocious oregon harmless without really investigating the ice," Duma said. 

He warns that radical driving connected crystal roads with a conveyance weighing much than 7 tonnes who transcend the recommended velocity bounds of 15 km/h could make waves nether the ice, causing it to deteriorate and crack.

People driving connected crystal roads oregon frozen lakes oregon rivers should ever cheque the crystal thickness earlier heading retired and hole for the worst-case scenario, said University of Manitoba Prof. Gordon Giesbrecht, a.k.a. Professor Popsicle, who's a world-renowned adept connected submersion and the effects of acold connected the quality body.

People request to retrieve the acronym SWOC if they're wrong a conveyance that breaks done ice, helium said:

• S is for seatbelts off
• W is for windows open
• O is for retired immediately 
• C is for getting children retired first

"Open that window, get your seatbelt off, truthful that if your car happens to interruption done the ice, you person an exit," Giesbrecht said.

A idiosyncratic who waits could panic and not deliberation of doing the archetypal step, helium said.

"Unfortunately, there are galore radical who are recovered drowned successful their conveyance successful the bottommost of a h2o body, and they haven't adjacent undone their seatbelt," helium said. 

People should region themselves from a submerged conveyance without worrying astir grabbing items from their car. 

MPI besides encourages those travelling to archer a loved 1 wherever they are going, what clip they expect to get astatine their destination oregon what clip they expect to travel home.