Geez, I don't know what's going on in the rest of the country but there have been 3 sled riders killed in the last three days around Syracuse, NY...

One guy hit a house, one guy hit a bridge, and one guy got hit by a truck while pushing a broken sled off a road..Then last night another two kids were in a head-on crash and both have serious injuries ........I guess the lack of snow for so long got everyone wound up or something .......

But the thing that really sticks out to me is how the news is covering the whole thing.

Imagine the stink if all these were ATV deaths? The only thing the local news is trumpeting is that snowmobile safety needs to be a top priority ..... So how come with ATVs it is the "dangerous" machines at fault, but with the sleds it is a matter of the riders not being safe???

 

yep we had severl deaths here also ,just look at it as the liberal media just trying to shut us down ,were the new bad guys ,
Snowmobilers were the bad guys in the 1980'sthey were like outlaws ,now it's just our turn ,

 

ss97, I did hear about the guy that hit a house, but only because of a NY forum I frequent. Especially with our new emperor Spitzer in place, if there were ever 3 atv deaths in 3 days I have a funny feeling the state would make it painful to own quads. I also think it is the lack of snow though. Tons of sledders have been waiting almost 2 full seasons to get out locally.

 

Dirt biker got killed here the other day, in a crash with another dirt bike. Hardly made a paragraph in the paper. If it had been an ATV, they would have gone on endlessly........

 

My view is that the people on these sleds....Need alot more seat time..........These sleds today are VERY powerfull and if you rode for many years like I did ....I still don't know if I could handle a 170 H.P. Ski-doo MACH Z.(2007 model). Some people that come into money one way or another will go out and buy the biggest and fastest snowmobile they can afford......And that is trouble.........I know you can still get hurt on the smaller one's also....But the sleds these days are VERY VERY powerfull.....That's my view on the topic...Thanks.......Caper...........

By the way a sled sitting on the dealer's floor will NOT harm anybody!!!!!!!!!!! IT is the person riding it!!!!

Know your limits!!!!!!......Caper..........

 

that's true, a buddy of mine bought a Firecat two years ago and has not used it more than 5 times, the thing is still brand new. And not cheap either, he paid close to $7,000 for a mid-level Firecat. I'm pretty sure I would not own a quad if I only got to use it twice a year.

Yea hopefully Spitzer spends his time with issues that actually matter. My guess is he won't help any of the off-road community much, but as long as he does not bother it I guess it won't matter............

 

the speed limit on the trails around here is like 35mph LOL, dont think they enforce it very much because there are lines of sleds going past my house at like 100mph. 3 ppl died in ontario last weekend on sleds as a result of speed and dangerous driving...



sleds are incrediably fast and dangerous, i had a close call last winter...was driving in my field near a fence on my 440 arctic cat jag when i guess my ski got caught in part of the fence that was down and it whipped my sled sideways and i flew off and the sled rolled about 15 times...bro watched the entire thing i dont remember anything, i wasnt knocked out but it happened so fast that i just remember laying in the snow looking at my sled upside down [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

no damage to the sled either...windsheild was already cracked lol

 

Sleds went thru the whole bad press thing back in the 70s and early 80s, I remember reading articles about how sleds would damage the environment, people were chasing deer on sleds, drunk driving on sleds, etc. The snowmobile industry seemded to have survived all that bashing, maybe because sleds are seasonal rather then all year like ATVs. I rode sleds for 6 years when I lived in Michigans UP back in the 80s and back then I thought the yamaha phazer I had was fast, hard to imagine riding one of those 170hp sleds now.....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

It's always sad to hear about these things. I think sledders (like myself) have banded together better and now have a good network of clubs co-operating with local governments and have people within the clubs, dealers, and manufacturers that lobby for their cause.

 

Last year i was up at my grandmas cause she lives on a lake and it was like really late and a guy on a snomobile with 3 chicks were going fast and all drunk down the road and it was plowed so the couldnt turn. Well they came up a steep hill and right after the hill the road turns and they were coming way to fast and couldn't make the turn and hit one of them cords that are connected to the power lines and they all went flying and the 2 chicks had to get hauled away in a amblance and one was like 50ft away from where they crashed.