'Fate was on my side': Lacombe snowmobiler recounts his close call after hitting a wire strung across a river
It was a weekend in January 2015. Jody Blokland was snowmobiling on the Blindman River with his brother and their four kids.
“I had my son in front of me and we were just going down the river and usually when we got to a nice wide open spot I would let him run the throttle,” said Blokland.
“And we got to this wide open spot and I let him run the throttle and we were going down and all of a sudden I felt my helmet get ripped off me and I got pulled off the back of the sled,” he continued.
Blokland said that’s when they saw a wire that had been put up on the river.
“There was lots of things that fell in place that day, I think fate was on my side,” he said.
“Normally I sit up on one knee so I can look over my kids helmet so if that day I would have been sitting up on one knee that wire would have got me right across the neck and probably wouldn’t have been a good outcome.”
Memories that came flooding back after all this time when he heard a woman died after hitting a cable on that same river.
“We were just out trying to have some fun. We were on crown land, we weren’t trespassing, we were following all the rules and to have to come across something like that, like it could have been so tragic,” said Blokland.
RCMP said a 25-year-old woman from Bluffton, northwest of Red Deer, hit a long intertwined steel cable while snowmobiling on Saturday.
She was airlifted to hospital in Edmonton but died from her injuries.
“Officers are still determining the likely use for the steel cable as well as who placed it there,” an RCMP spokesperson told CTV News Edmonton in an email.
“The cable appears to have been at that location for some time and we do not feel that it was placed there with the intended purpose to cause injury to someone.”
The Alberta Snowmobile Association isn’t sure how to deal with this type of situation.
“As far as we know there isn’t legislation that permits this so this is new terrain for us,” said the association’s executive director Chris Brookes.
“We’ll continue to look towards the province to give us some guidance as to what regulations or legislation could be brought in.”
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.