Temperatures neared 50 degrees Saturday afternoon, so the video was hard to believe.
A motorist was driving a Jeep Cherokee onto the thin ice of Puckaway Lake in Green Lake County, about 55 miles north of Madison.
As expected, it didn’t end well, since there was only about 4 inches of ice on the 5,000-acre lake, an impoundment of the Fox River, according to a Facebook post by the Wautoma Police Department.
An ice angler on Puckaway Lake in Green Lake County broke through about 4 inches of ice Saturday while trying to return to the Lotus Drive boat landing. The driver escaped wet but appeared to be unharmed.
Green Lake County Sheriff Joe Konrath said the 62-year-old man from Cambria was unhurt in the incident that was reported to his office at about 3 p.m.
“He just thought the ice was strong enough to drive on it,” Konrath said. “It warmed up pretty good Saturday afternoon, and Puckaway is just the Fox River going through and the water current probably weakened the ice. But he never should have drove on there.”
Two Wisconsin men died in the last few days when they fell through the ice in separate incidents. The state Department of Natural Resources on Friday warned people to exercise caution on the ice, which can look solid even when it’s not.
Mason Koerber, whose uncle Andy Duernberger, of Slinger, took a video of the incident, said the driver had been fishing on the lake near the Lotus Drive boat landing on the lake’s northern shore, which is in Marquette County a few miles south of Princeton. After fishing for a few hours, the man tried to return to shore but broke through the ice about 75 yards from shore. The front end of the vehicle plunged through the ice with the back end sticking up into the air.
The Jeep Cherokee of a 62-year-old Cambria man is seen here on Saturday in Puckaway Lake in Green Lake County. The man escaped through an open window as the vehicle began to sink.
ANDY DUERNBERGER
In the video, the driver, who was the only person in the vehicle, can be seen crawling out the driver’s side window, which he appears to have rolled down before driving, and then hoisting himself out of the water onto the ice.
Koerber, who works in West Bend but is also a volunteer with the Slinger Fire Department and has trained in water rescues, said other people were fishing in the area where the Jeep went through but everybody had walked out, including Duernberger. There were no other cars or trucks or even ATVs on the lake.
The vehicle was removed Sunday, according to Wautoma Police.
4 inches of ice is enough to drive on. but ice is never uniform and so where there is 4 inches not far away there is 2 and that won’t support a car. I always insisted on 12 inches before I would drive but some people I know kept a small two wheel drive so they could risk 3 inches.
Temperatures neared 50 degrees Saturday afternoon, so the video was hard to believe.
A motorist was driving a Jeep Cherokee onto the thin ice of Puckaway Lake in Green Lake County, about 55 miles north of Madison.
As expected, it didn’t end well, since there was only about 4 inches of ice on the 5,000-acre lake, an impoundment of the Fox River, according to a Facebook post by the Wautoma Police Department.
An ice angler on Puckaway Lake in Green Lake County broke through about 4 inches of ice Saturday while trying to return to the Lotus Drive boat landing. The driver escaped wet but appeared to be unharmed.
Green Lake County Sheriff Joe Konrath said the 62-year-old man from Cambria was unhurt in the incident that was reported to his office at about 3 p.m.
“He just thought the ice was strong enough to drive on it,” Konrath said. “It warmed up pretty good Saturday afternoon, and Puckaway is just the Fox River going through and the water current probably weakened the ice. But he never should have drove on there.”
Two Wisconsin men died in the last few days when they fell through the ice in separate incidents. The state Department of Natural Resources on Friday warned people to exercise caution on the ice, which can look solid even when it’s not.
Mason Koerber, whose uncle Andy Duernberger, of Slinger, took a video of the incident, said the driver had been fishing on the lake near the Lotus Drive boat landing on the lake’s northern shore, which is in Marquette County a few miles south of Princeton. After fishing for a few hours, the man tried to return to shore but broke through the ice about 75 yards from shore. The front end of the vehicle plunged through the ice with the back end sticking up into the air.
The Jeep Cherokee of a 62-year-old Cambria man is seen here on Saturday in Puckaway Lake in Green Lake County. The man escaped through an open window as the vehicle began to sink. ANDY DUERNBERGER
In the video, the driver, who was the only person in the vehicle, can be seen crawling out the driver’s side window, which he appears to have rolled down before driving, and then hoisting himself out of the water onto the ice.
Koerber, who works in West Bend but is also a volunteer with the Slinger Fire Department and has trained in water rescues, said other people were fishing in the area where the Jeep went through but everybody had walked out, including Duernberger. There were no other cars or trucks or even ATVs on the lake.
The vehicle was removed Sunday, according to Wautoma Police.
4 inches of ice is enough to drive on. but ice is never uniform and so where there is 4 inches not far away there is 2 and that won’t support a car. I always insisted on 12 inches before I would drive but some people I know kept a small two wheel drive so they could risk 3 inches.