snowmobile fell /open water

[Lee Borgersen]

 Man dies snowmobile fell into open water Lake geneva WI

2/ 15, 2016 | 09:35 AM

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WILLIAMS BAY — An Illinois man died Sunday evening after the snowmobile he was on fell into open water on Geneva Lake between Williams Bay and Fontana.

The deceased has been identified as Mark G. Reninger, 53, of Wheeling, Illinois. Juan Gomez, DNR conservation warden, said the call about the accident came at 9:02 p.m.

Reninger and another man drove their snowmobile over the ice from Fontana to Lake Geneva for dinner, Gomez said.

On their way back, they thought they were following the same snowmobile path back to Fontana, but somehow their return path took them to a section of the lake that was not frozen over.

Gomez said the driver, a 49-year-old man from Long Grove, Illinois, told authorities that when he felt the snowmobile giving way through the ice, he jumped for an ice shelf, which he was able to reach.

The driver, who has not yet been identified, said when he looked back, his passenger, Reninger, was already off the back of the snowmobile, Gomez said.

It was the driver who notified authorities of the accident.

Firefighters and equipment from Fontana, Williams Bay, Lake Geneva, town of Delavan, Fox Lake, Illinois, and the Walworth County Sheriff's Department searched the lake for the passenger.

His body was located about an hour after he fell into the lake, Gomez said.

The driver was transported to Walworth Mercy where he was treated for hypothermia.

Gomez said that the section of the lake where the snowmobile went through is usually the last to freeze over, and often the first to thaw.

The Geneva Lake Environmental Agency announced that Geneva Lake was completely frozen over on Jan. 19, but since then, unseasonably warm weather has weakened the ice and, apparently, completely melted the ice cover on some sections of the lake.

Gomez said that at night, clear ice, which is the strongest ice, and open water are often indistinguishable to the naked eye.