Letter: A flippant approach to safety at Hatchet Pond

SIR – Your front page article on pond ice skating (A&T, 16th December) caused my eyebrows to raise beyond their design criteria. No harm done, thankfully.

Farmer George Heathcote is clearly no scientist and dangerously flippant. Just because he has been skating on Hatchet Pond for decades does not make it safe.

Drilling a hole in the ice and measuring a thickness of 2in just does not cut the mustard, neither does having just a safety rope to hand either.

Falling through ice into freezing water could mean life-changing injuries or even death in a short space of time if any rescue attempt was delayed through ignorance or inadequate equipment.

The fact that sodden winter clothing will add something like 6kg to a person's weight means that even if you manage to drag that person out, the added weight could break the surrounding ice making the rescue more difficult and adding more time to what could be a critical situation.

The recent deaths of four children should reinforce that.

What type of ice is on the pond (there are different types with different shear strengths)?

Underwater depressions or ridges weaken the ice, as do invisible hairline cracks. It can also vary in thickness over a short distance.

Sun on the ice can cause thawing which may not be evident to begin with but can reduce the strength of the ice by 50% in quite a short space of time.

Ever heard the ice 'sing' as you pass over it or heard faint cracking sounds?

There are plenty of websites regarding ice safety, but it is like everything else classed as a hazardous sport: do your homework, wear sensible gear, be aware of the right safety measures and above all, with all those in place, have fun!

As a closure, according to the experts from all quarters, 4in of ice thickness is the safe minimum for one person – not 2in! It's more for groups, and make sure kids are supervised.

Calculations can be easily found on Google. As a starter, try the website lakeice.squarespace.com/breakthrough.thickness

John Walsh,
Address supplied