REGIONAL- Two ATV incidents, including one with serious injuries, kept emergency responders on the run last week.
On Friday evening, March 1, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office responded to an ATV crash with injuries, located just southeast of the Greenwood Town Hall on Co. Rd. 77. A Faribault resident was visiting a family cabin for the weekend and had gone on an ATV ride. While navigating a steep ditch along the road, the ATV slid downhill on ice and then flipped over, landing on the driver.
Family members dialed 911 immediately and monitored the driver until responders arrived. Greenwood first responders and Bois Forte police were quickly on scene and rendered aid. The driver was subsequently taken by North Memorial Air medical helicopter to a Duluth area hospital with serious injuries. According to the sheriff’s office report, the unidentified driver of the ATV was not wearing a helmet.
Bois Forte law enforcement, Greenwood Fire Department and first responders, Tower Fire, and Virginia Ambulance assisted with the response.
Early Saturday morning, witnesses reported another ATV incident at the North Bay area of Birch Lake, outside Babbitt, where a person and their vehicle had fallen through the ice.
The driver and lone occupant was a 64-year-old man from the Babbitt area. He encountered a pressure ridge while driving on the lake and attempted to stop but slid into the open water created by the buckled ice. The ATV sank in the water and the driver was partially submerged.
The driver was pulled from the water with assistance from the Babbitt Fire Department and the reporting party. The man was wet and cold but not injured, the sheriff’s office report said. Rescuers eventually recovered his ATV as well. Babbitt Police Department, Babbitt Fire, and the St. Louis County Volunteer Rescue Squad assisted at the scene.
The Sheriff’s Office reminds citizens that with the mild winter and unseasonably warm weather, no lake ice should be considered safe.