It certainly has been an unusual year in terms of weather in Minnesota. The recent precipitation has provided many parts of the state with at least a dusting of snow, or more. It is important for Minnesotans to remember that Minnesota’s laws prohibiting driving while impaired extend beyond allegations involving cars, SUVs and other traditional vehicles.
Earlier this winter season, this blog reported a story of a snowmobile DWI arrest in Farmington that involved a man and a sled. Minnesota DWI laws essentially include any type of motor vehicle anywhere in the state. The laws do not necessarily only apply to cars on the state’s roads. The November story involved a snowmobile. More recently, an apparent mishap on a Minnesota lake has now resulted in ATV-related DWI charges for a man in Meeker County.
Authorities say they received a report of unsafe conditions on a lake near Litchfield, a community approximately 75 miles west of Minneapolis. The Meeker County Sheriff’s office says that law enforcement officers, including a conservation officer from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, were dispatched to Greenleaf Lake where an all terrain vehicle and an ice house apparently broke through thin ice. Greenleaf Lake is located between Litchfield and Hutchinson.
Authorities claim the ATV had broken through the ice, and plummeted to the bottom of the lake, while the fish house had sunk approximately 25 percent into the semi-frozen lake. After investigating the ice fishing incident, authorities arrested a 45-year-old Hutchinson man on suspicion of DWI, apparently related to his alleged use of the ATV.
Source: West Central Tribune, “Man arrested for DWI after ATV falls through ice on Greenleaf Lake,” Jan. 17, 2012