Snowmobiler In Water For 1 Hour After Breaking Through Ice
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Officials in northern Minnesota are reminding residents that ice conditions are currently unpredictable and unsafe after a weekend incident where a snowmobiler broke through the ice, as did several others who tried to save him.
The Crow Wing County Sheriff's Office says the snowmobiler, 30-year-old Steven Truehart of Brooklyn Park, broke through thin ice Saturday evening on Partridge Lake, just east of Bay Lake Township.
He was estimated to have been in the freezing waters for an hour before emergency responders cut a path for him to shore.
Officials say Truehart was riding snowmobiles with 33-year-old Heather Gillen of Gilbert, Arizona. When Truehart's vehicle broke through the ice, Gillen tried to help him and broke through the ice herself.
A family member found them both in the water. Officials were called, and relatives were able to pull Gillen from the lake.
But when other relatives tried to help Truehart, the snowmobile they were riding broke through the ice. The two riders – a 57-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man – were able to get safely to shore, the sheriff's office said.
Truehart, as well as the 57-year-old woman, were treated for cold exposure at a local hospital.
