I'm bringing this up after a man was out walking in Transcona, when he was struck by a snowmobile. He later died from his injuries. You can read about it here. When I heard about this I remembered just last Saturday another one on highway 317, on the way to Lac du Bonnet, coincidentally where I was that Saturday. So it made me think about the dangers of those fast-paced machines, and my fear of them.
I suppose a quad can do as much damage to the human body as a snowmobile, yet the few crashes I've been in haven't garnered much more than a few bruises. Don't get me wrong, I think snowmobile's are great, you can use them to go over lengths of snowcovered highway to reach stranded motorists. Or drive down long stretches on northern Manitoba to a neighbor's. Or even some relaxed trailblazin' on a Sunday afternoon. Tons of my friends a snowmobile fanatics. They peer excitedly out the window at the snowfall. You can see the wheels turning as they devise a plan to make it out to some of the trails north of Winnipeg.
But when it comes to myself ever owning one- I doubt it will ever come to that. I think for my own personal recreation I'll stick with the quad. It's less speedy, coming in at a max speed around 80-90 km ( still extremely fast) where as snowmobiles can reach 150km speeds. Safe Kids Canada says that each year snowmobiles cause 200 deaths and 14,000 injuries in North America. I couldn't locate similar stats on ATV's.
It's all-terrain means yes, you can use it in snow as well as the warm muddy summers of Manitoba. And mastering the all-terrain-vehicles in all kinds of terrain is half the fun. And more bang for your buck, wouldn't you say?
Needless to say, I won't be investing my hardearned cash on a snowmobile this winter, or ever for that matter. But that's just me.
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