2 brothers die after falling through cracks in ice at Hokkaido lake

Saturday 21st March, 07:00 AM JST

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13 Comments

airrunwesker at 07:34 AM JST - 21st March

They made sure the kids got out. These two guys probably died heroes.
spudman at 09:20 AM JST - 21st March

died heroes after being careless. Global Warming will make these incidents more and more common.
grafton at 09:26 AM JST - 21st March

Whatever the reasons for this they have my respect & the family my condolences.
Smythe at 11:12 AM JST - 21st March

One has to give credit to the two of them getting the young ones out at their cost of life.

This is pretty common here in Canada every once in a while & we all feel a bit of the pain.
Disillusioned at 11:26 AM JST - 21st March

Local people had refrained from ice fishing over recent days as the ice had begun to thin, police said.

So, why were these wombats out on the ice with kids? Were there no warnings posted? I know it is common to happen in the boondocks of Canada where there are only bears and deer for company, but this is Japan where it is unusual to be alone. If the local council was aware of the ice being thin and dangerous they should have at least had warning signs plus local media warnings. They should not have been on the ice in the first place and a rather lengthy court case should be following this tragedy.
beavis at 11:42 AM JST - 21st March

Here's the puzzle of the day.

The brothers were rescued after two hours and taken to hospital but were later confirmed dead.
likeitis at 12:19 PM JST - 21st March

Nothing puzzling about that beavis. They may have been "believed" dead, but true confirmation, as in confirmed dead and officially dead, comes from medical practitioners.

And don't mess around with that. If someone has recently died of unnatural causes, get them to a hospital asap. Don't finish watching your tv show just because you think they are dead and there is plenty of time.

And this beats the crap out of when JT used to say they "died at the hospital" instead. I am grateful to see some accuracy.
Sarge at 12:23 PM JST - 21st March

I'm no genius, but I know enough not to tread on a frozen-over lake.
jackie3002 at 08:35 PM JST - 21st March

sad thing.warn everybody never going fishing on lake!
Sarge at 01:00 AM JST - 22nd March

This is indeed tragic. And completely avoidable if people would just have enough common sense not to tread on frozen-over lakes, especially in early spring.
smithinjapan at 01:12 AM JST - 22nd March

sarge: "This is indeed tragic. And completely avoidable if people would just have enough common sense not to tread on frozen-over lakes, especially in early spring."

You suggesting they tread over lakes that are not frozen? Come on, Sarge... they were ice-fishing, as people have done since pre-history, in all likelihood. It's perfectly safe to walk on 'frozen-over' lakes (again, as opposed to lakes with open cracks??) when it is assured the ice is thick enough. In this case, clearly, it was NOT assured, and there were tragic results.

My questions is if there were any signs or indications that people take extreme caution in going out on the water, particularly as it's pointed out this year is warmer than normal and many people have stopped ice fishing in the area.
8iamhappy8 at 11:50 AM JST - 22nd March

They did the right thing. Honorable sacrifices.
Noliving at 01:40 PM JST - 24th March

Oh come on spudman, people have been falling through ice on frozen lakes all the damn time, if your going to make the claim that it is because of global warming that is causing people to fall through ice earlier in the year then those people are just idiots, all they have to do is ask themselves how warm it is outside and think too themselves you know its above freezing I'm not going to go out on the ice, its called commonsense. Besides 2008 was actually the opposite, temps went down not up. In fact so far 2009 has been colder than average for the earth.

Just because you have temps that normally show up in april doesn't mean they haven't shown up in the past 1000 years in march.