Every year a handful of kids fall through the ice of a frozen lake or pond. Some of them survive. Others do not. They either drown or perish from hypothermia.

The danger of frozen bodies of water

There are a few things you and your kids should know about the danger posed by frozen bodies of water:

1. Bodies of water don’t freeze evenly. The ice can be thick in some areas and thin in others. The thickness can depend on everything from water currents underneath the ice to the topography of the lake bed to how much sun a particular area receives. Lakes and ponds also freeze from the outside in, so the ice tends to get thinner the farther out on the lake you go.
2. Once you fall in you might have trouble getting back out. What sometimes happens is that the ice breaks in a certain spot, the person gets dunked into the icy water, but they don’t come up in the same spot they actually fell in and find themselves trapped underneath the ice.
3. Another problem is that the ice is too fragile at the spot they fell in, so every time a person tries to pull themselves back out of the water, the ice breaks away at the edge, leaving them no solid surface to pull themselves out.

Rescuing someone whose fallen through the ice

Rescuing a victim who has fallen through the ice can be quite tricky, yet another reason this hazard is so dangerous. What routinely happens is that one person falls through the ice, a family member or friend goes to help them, and they fall in too. Now you’ve got two people in trouble who need rescuing. I’ve even come across stories where one person after another falls through the ice like dominoes, including emergency personnel. So if someone’s in trouble, here’s what you should do:

1. Call 911 ( or have someone else call 911) straight away. The last thing you want is to try to rescue someone first and find yourself in trouble without any way to alert others.
2. Try to find a rope, broom stick, tree branch, jumper cables, or something else you can use to pull them out without going right up to the edge of where they fell in.
3. As you approach the area where they fell through, lay down flat on your stomach in a prone position and wiggle like a snake to move. When you’re walking upright, all your body weight is pressing down upon a rather narrow point beneath your feet, making it more likely the ice will crack. Laying down distributes this weight more evenly across a much larger surface area, relieving the amount of pressure on the ice.

Safety tips to prevent kids from falling through the ice

1. There’s really just one rule kids need that will keep them out of precarious positions: Never walk on a frozen lake, stream or pond unless it’s been tested by adults ahead of time and determined to be safe.
2. When a frozen body of water is covered in a layer of snow it can be hard to spot. But look for the signs: a large flat area of snow where there are no weeds or vegetation poking up from below.
3. If they do end up on a frozen lake, whether accidentally or intentionally, and they start to hear the ice cracking beneath them, they should lay down flat with their arms and legs spread out. This will distribute their weight more evenly across the surface to reduce the strain on the ice, lowering the odds that they’ll fall through. Then use the fireman crawl to make your way to the shore. (See our fire safety area for information on the fire crawl.)

Diane’s Dangerous Decision

Teach your kids about the danger of frozen lakes with this free eBook.

Read the eBook

Download a printable PDF of Diane’s Dumb Decision Workbook/Coloring Book