The two men from Little Britain, Ont., about two hours northeast of Toronto, were determined to find out just how fast they could drive a particular snowmobile.

Constable Hearn, a 41-year-old off-duty officer with the Durham Regional Police Service, was to hold a radar gun and clock the speed of his friend as Mr. White, 45, whipped past on his motorized sled.

But shortly before 9 p.m., and for reasons that may never be known, Mr. White's snowmobile struck Constable Hearn at a speed high enough to kill both men at the scene.

www.theGlobeAndMail.com

www.cbc.ca

www.durhamregion.com

"In my 20 years, I've never seen anything like Friday night's accident," said Sergeant David Bowles of the City of Kawartha Lakes OPP unit that is now investigating the crash.

The double fatality represents two of seven snowmobile-related deaths in Canada this weekend.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information has found snowmobiling to be the lead cause of traumatic winter-sports related injuries, particularly among young men, and often alcohol is involved.

Sgt. Bowles said that, as a matter of course, police will look to see if alcohol played a role in the Lake Scugog accident. But he explained that it's not unusual for people to race snowmobiles across frozen lakes in rural Ontario and that "it is perfectly legal to do so."

While there are speed limits set by the Motorized Snow Vehicles Act that apply to travel on roads and highways, Sgt. Bowles said, "there are no speed limits on the lakes."

"That's why they go there to conduct radar runs and trials, for bragging rights as to who's got the fastest sled."

Friends of the men who died at Lake Scugog told CTV News this weekend that radar runs are popular and that the idea is to fine-tune a snowmobile to "go as fast as you can." Area resident Wayne Simpson said he believes Mr. White had reached "a record of 129.6 miles an hour" this winter and that he "was trying to break the 130 mark."

Constable Hearn was to measure his speed with a hand-held radar gun that Sgt. Bowles said does not appear to be a police-issued model.

Mr. White and Constable Hearn, both of whom leave families behind, had originally planned to run the "radar trial" on Saturday morning, but may have heard the forecast call for freezing rain, Sgt. Bowles said, and decided to go out on Friday's starry and windless night.

"Maybe in daylight this never would have happened," Sgt. Bowles said.

Submitted on 03/12/2007

Submitted by: paul childs
Reference: The Globe and Mail and others - March 12, 2007

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Chip said:
Neutral: For Darwin's Eyes
Although we do have many submissions of this story, I like this write-up. It is very complete and adds a lot of information we did not have previously. To try speed tests on a frozen lake in the dark! Good grief! Thanks for sending this, Paul

Bruce said:
Neutral: For Darwin's Eyes
Thanks for the additional information, Paul.

Shadow said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
More links, and a better writeup, let Darwin decide which one gets kept! Thanks for this!

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