Father, son recall close call on ice road

The unsanctioned ice route between Saint John and the Kingston Peninsula is closed after two vehicles ran into problems over the weekend and its future is now uncertain.

Both drivers — a father and a son — are fine, although one vehicle went through the ice and another one got stuck.

The incidents happened between Sunday night and early Monday morning, just eight days after the popular shortcut across the frozen Kenebecasis River had opened for the season.

Christopher Raynes, 22, was driving his half-tonne truck and was in the midpoint of the shortcut at about 11:30 p.m. when he hit a patch of slush.

"Apparently, it was open, but I made it through," he told CBC News.

"Blew a couple of tires off my truck."

Raynes called his father, Mike Raynes, for assistance.

"He came with the plow truck and he wasn't going quite as fast as I was and he broke through and all I seen was him and he jumped out and the headlights disappeared," he said.

Raynes Sr., said it was his first time on the ice road this winter because he didn't think it was safe. Last year, an unseasonably warm winter kept the ice road from opening.

"He's your son. What do you do? You go out," he said.

"I got about ... 300 feet from him and the front of the truck went down. The plow came up right to the headlights," Raynes recalled.

"I knew I was going down. So I opened up the door to jump and the door fetched up on the ice. So the truck turned sideways and there it was for about 30 seconds and the dog wouldn't get out," he said.

"So I had to step back into the truck and get the dog, throw her onto the ice, step back off and say goodbye to my truck. There she went, to the bottom."

Raynes went back to the scene on Monday afternoon to help rescue his son's truck. They managed to pull it onto solid ice and dry land.

"It's not something I'd like to do again," said Christopher Raynes.

"I don't know if I'd be going on the ice road again. I think I've learned my lesson."

A spokesperson for the RCMP said the force had been advising motorists not to use the ice road before the Raynes' difficulties and that warning continues.

Both incidents happened near Drury Cove, on an ice route.

The ice road is now closed, with barricades and warning signs on both ends.

The unsanctioned river route opened earlier this month for the first time in two years. The shortcut between the Kingston Peninsula and Saint John is said to take roughly 30 minutes off of the trip.

Local volunteers, who measured the ice earlier this month, had determined it was thick enough for vehicles to cross.

Some residents say the ice road should only be used by locals who know the route and pay attention to any shifts in the ice or weather.

This is not the first incident that drivers using the route have had. In 1994, a truck veered off the cleared lane and sank into the water. However, no one was injured in the incident.