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GreenQuest Lawn
01-08-2004, 09:00 PM
Now here is an ironic story.This is from the town My parents live by, and my sons mother lives within view of the bar & church.

WRIGHT TOWNSHIP -- The Rev. Leo Rosloniec was sitting in an easy chair by his Christmas tree, 20 minutes into evening prayers when he heard "a big boom" outside his front door. The priest at the nearby St. Joseph's Catholic Church looked through his window and saw a disabled snowmobile in the front lawn of the rectory -- then saw a man lying motionless on his front porch.

Carl Charles Durham, 34, died Monday night outside the priest's home at 18876 8th Ave. in the village of Wright.

The Coopersville man was driving the snowmobile around 7:20 p.m. "at a very high rate of speed" east on Hickory Street when he ran the stop sign at 8th Avenue, crossing into Rosloniec's front yard, Ottawa County Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Austin said.

The snowmobile took out a mailbox before striking concrete steps that led to the rectory's front porch. Durham was thrown from the sled and crashed through the glass of an outer storm door, then into an inner screen door, collapsing beneath an image of a cross on the front door. He suffered head and neck injuries.

Durham was not wearing a helmet. Police say witnesses reported Durham had been at the Wright Tavern, just across the street from the rectory, earlier that night.



Now the sled he was on was stolen, although the theft was reported while this guy was in jail for third offence drunk driving. So the guy that died could not have stole it.

It is not known if he knew that the sled was stolen but his two "friends" after walking up on the porch and seeing he was dead, fled the seen. So I am sure they knew, and with this guys criminal past I would bet he knew as well.

Sure does make you think, riding on a stolen snowmobile, drunk, and dying by crashing through a priests front door.


The only two things in the village of Wright are the church & bar.

phoenix827
01-10-2004, 08:52 AM
We had one up here a couple years ago. But nothing like that! :D This guy was riding across a field and found a barbed wire fence the hard way. His kid had just crossed it off to one side a bit and supposedly that pulled the wire taut and a bit higher to where it could come over the windshield. Ended up decapitating him.:eek:

BWAMX
01-10-2004, 09:38 AM
Keep the Sleds on the trails!

1st storm here this year :

Guy takes a relative out for a ride, on a interstate connector!!
Loses control (probably at a high rate of speed)
slides into the wire guard rails.

Both guys lost an ARM , and very bad injurys.

State Police say they can't remeber a worse type Snomobile crash.

High performance Machines ,,, LOW performance drivers.

Pelican
01-10-2004, 09:55 AM
My friends go to Old Forge several times a season, they've got stools in the bar up there with their names on them. Their big kick is to race from bar to bar at 2:00 am, and they've all got high performance sleds capable of 120 mph. One has had 2 severe wrecks and nearly died. I keep waiting for the news that one of them isn't coming home, I fear it's just a matter of time. They've asked me along a number of times, but no way!:nope

ih82plow
01-10-2004, 10:17 AM
Originally posted by Pelican
My friends go to Old Forge several times a season, they've got stools in the bar up there with their names on them. Their big kick is to race from bar to bar at 2:00 am, and they've all got high performance sleds capable of 120 mph. One has had 2 severe wrecks and nearly died. I keep waiting for the news that one of them isn't coming home, I fear it's just a matter of time. They've asked me along a number of times, but no way!:nope

We ride in old forge all the time we are in the trails in the morning and we out out and in bed by 9pm because of the bar hoppers.

The most unsafe time to be out there is after 2 am when the bars close.The trails are loaded with drunks. I understand that in old forge they are actually doing sobriety checks on the trails and lakes any one know if this is true?

DanG
01-10-2004, 11:50 AM
I ride/rode with some people who are like that.
All they wanted to do is get from point a to b as fast as possible.I myself have been in 2 accidents where i got hit by someone coming the otherway at too fast of speed for the trails.

The last time i went to tug hill to the timberview lodge i was with a group of 5 guys who had to stop at every bar on the trails and have one or two beers at each one.

Thats not my type of riding, I like to put on a lot of miles and stop for lunch/dinner and gas and alot of the time i have my kids with me

But,
I do enjoy riding at night more then during the days because you can see the headlights of the sleds coming towards you.

Back in the early/mid nineties a good friend of mine was killed up in speculator in a collision late at night coming around a penninsula and hit a sled that was stopped on the lake broken down.


Dan