Snowmobile riders not wearing helmets
By PETE FISHER Special to The Sun
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP - A three year-old Scarborough boy is fighting for his life after a snowmobile he was riding on slammed into a parked tandem flatbed trailer near Cobourg and caught fire.
Matthew Rooplal, 22, his son Luke, 3, and two unidentified Bowmanville girls, aged 7 and 10, set out on Halstead Beach Rd., east of Bewdley in Hamilton Township (north of Cobourg), about 6:15 p.m. Friday.
Cobourg Police Const. Andy Taylor said none of the riders wore helmets while riding on the Polaris snowmobile, which came around a bend and apparently veered off the roadway and slammed into the trailer before the snowmobile caught fire. Taylor said the Rooplals and the girls were thrown from the snowmobile. Rooplal rushed to free his son still trapped on the burning machine.
Taylor said it is too early to tell if the bend in the road or speed were factors in the accident.
"When we arrived the driver was on the ground near the snowmobile and the three children that were on the snowmobile had been taken to their grandparents' home," said Bewdley fire Chief Scott Robinson.
Taylor said Luke was rushed to hospital in Cobourg with massive head injuries and broken bones and later transported by air ambulance to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He was listed in critical condition last night.
From my understanding in our investigation so far, no one was wearing helmets and obviously it's an area we are going to be looking into," Taylor said. Rooplal and the girls were taken to a hospital in Peterborough, where they were treated and released Friday.