An all-terrain vehicle plunged into Lake Winnebago on Saturday, another reminder to stay off thin ice, says the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Mark Strand.
At about 6:45 p.m., Sheriff’s Office Deputy James Borgen arrived on the West Shore of Lake Winnebago near the intersection of Lakeshore Drive and Kinker Road. He found a group of ATV riders were accounted for, but one person had to abandon an ATV when it broke through the ice, Strand said.
“Borgen told them to wait until daylight before heading back out onto the lake,” Strand said. “He also gave them the number of a recovery company that goes and retrieves those sorts of things.”
A snowstorm placed a four-inch blanket of snow on Lake Winnebago last week and with sunny, 37-degree weather on Monday, the lake is far from safe, Strand said.
“It hasn’t been cold enough yet (to make the lake safer),” Strand said. “On top of that, the snow makes it more difficult to form ice. … (The ATV enthusiasts) were in four-wheelers, not cars, and they were having problems with that.”
Strand suggests checking with area fishing clubs to find out how thick the ice is.
The National Weather Service is predicting temperatures to remain below freezing until the weekend with a possibility of snow today and Friday.
