Mother warns of danger after son falls through river ice

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This article was published 28/12/2020 (1412 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg mother is cautioning others about outdoor activities on ice after her 14-year-old son fell through the Seine River in John Bruce Park on Sunday.

Niki Card’s family weekend excursion turned “awful” within minutes of walking on the river when her son, Nolan, unexpectedly crashed through the surface, dunked up to his waist in frigid water.

Card said her 11-year-old daughter had initially spotted an uncovered patch of ice, but the family was careful to avoid it.

“It all happened so fast,” she said. “My son was near her but not right at the patch of ice that I didn’t trust. And then the next thing I knew, he went through the ice.”

Card’s husband managed to extricate the boy without falling in himself, although the ice cracked around him.

“We were able to simply walk away, which is kind of miraculous,” said Card, a lifelong Winnipegger. “We’re water conscious and think we understand winter, and that surprised me.”

Hundreds of snow prints trail down the Seine River at the end of John Bruce Road, where the family walked on Sunday. A similar sight also marks the Assiniboine River in downtown Winnipeg near Wellington Crescent where, over the weekend, many people skated, skied and walked despite intermittent open water flowing in the area.

Earlier this month, city officials reminded residents to stay off of retention ponds. So far this year, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews have answered 249 ice and water rescue calls, up from 152 in 2019, a city spokesperson said last Monday.

Thirty-six of this year’s calls were to retention ponds, a figure that has doubled since 2019.

“Water from snowmelt or nearby water main breaks can drain into retention ponds. This water is often mixed with street salts, which can cause ice to melt and thin unevenly. This water enters retention ponds from underneath the ice, resulting in thinning of ice that can’t be seen from the surface,” the city spokesperson said.

Around a third of all drownings in Manitoba every year happen between October and April, said Christopher Love, safety management co-ordinator at the Lifesaving Society of Manitoba.

“One of the key points we always try to get across is no ice is ever 100 per cent safe,” said Love.

He said people often mistakenly believe cold air temperature solely influences ice formation, but in reality, other factors such as man-made structures and water cleanliness and currents also play a part.

“Those big (weather) changes are not good for keeping the ice consistently strong because the yo-yo — that is another thing that will stress the ice and potentially cause it to fracture,” said Love.

“If an organization like the city knows of certain dangerous locations, they should mark those. They should flag those, but everybody else also needs to take their own responsibility for it, too,” he said.

Winnipeg experienced unseasonably warm autumn weather this year, owing partly to deviations from regular “La Niña” patterns that usually bring cold air to the city. Winnipeg reached a record-breaking high of 6.6 C earlier in December, the warmest Dec. 8 on record since 1872.

“It hasn’t been as cold for as long as we think it has been,” Card said. “(People) need to proceed with caution.”

Card said she’s never walked on the Seine River before and didn’t notice any city signs warning of thin ice in the area.

“If the ice has frozen different this year … there needs to be a clear message,” said Card. “I wouldn’t have thought that we can’t walk on that.”

— with files from Carol Sanders and Kellen Taniguchi