Any time a tragedy strikes, it gives people an opportunity to reflect on what happened, but also on their place and standing in the world. Mortality, suddenly, becomes very real.
The death of 29-year-old Bancroft resident Thomas Yanch at the Ontario Watercross Racing Association’s (OWRA) event in Haliburton on Sunday (Sept. 27) has sent shockwaves throughout the Highlands and beyond.
A young man went out to do something he loved. His family and friends were there. So too dozens of others who shared in the same passion for racing. They all had to watch as their worst nightmare unfolded before their eyes – a fluke accident, as described by OWRA representative Carm Sawyer, that led to the death of one of their own.
There is no argument to be made with that. No silver lining. No lesson that makes losing a 29-year-old man any easier for the people who loved him.
Yanch was an experienced racer and longtime member of the OWRA community. He was also an HVAC technician, a volunteer firefighter, and, by all accounts, someone who spent his life looking out for other people. That’s the person who deserves to be remembered. Not simply as the man who died in a watercross race.
As is the case anytime a serious incident occurs in life, questions are being asked, judgements made. Could this have been prevented? Were the races safe enough? Should watercross racing continue in Haliburton at all?
I’ve been following multiple social media pages that have reported the news – in every case, the story shared was a reprint of the Ontario Provincial Police press release that went out Monday (Sept. 28) confirming a fatal snowmobile crash had occurred.
There was a lot of confusion, especially for those who didn’t know snowmobiles could be raced on water, but there were plenty who said this incident should force the OWRA, Dysart et al township and Pinestone resort to reassess the future of the event. Lots want to see the races cancelled. I understand the instinct – when something terrible happens, we want to prevent it from ever happening again. If eliminating an activity could guarantee that no family would ever again have to go through what Yanch’s did last weekend, maybe the decision would be simple. But life doesn’t work that way. And neither does risk.
Asked about safety, Sawyer said drivers are briefed on protocol every morning before racing begins. Racers are instructed to raise their arms if they fall into the water or their machine submerges. A horn is used during an emergency to alert racers and on-site paramedics. And, notably, when a racer is vulnerable in the water other drivers are supposed to give that person a wide berth.
According to Sawyer and multiple other witnesses I’ve spoken to, those protocols were followed to a tee. Unfortunately, they weren’t guarantees of safety. Nothing is.
Look closely enough and you can find danger in many activities people enjoy. Skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, cycling – they all carry risk. Our community has seen fatal snowmobile collisions before. The answer wasn’t to abolish snowmobiling.
If there are lessons to be learned from Sunday’s tragedy, then great. If procedures can be improved, they should be improved. Anything to make future events safer should be taken seriously. But I think there is a difference between asking tough questions about safety, and expecting some kind of reform, and deciding the OWRA community should lose even more.
Watercross is a sport, but for those who participate and watch, it’s also about friendship and family, bringing people together. One terrible afternoon should not erase all of that. If anything, it should remind us why communities – and the support they can provide – matter in the first place.
