In our trying times, with living standards on a steadily downward curve,
everyone survives as best they can. Dire need forces people to seek their
livelihood even in what was only recently considered a pastime. Ice fishing
is risky in such changeable weather, yet they take the risk for even the
most meager catch.
For three ice fishers on the Samara River near Dnipropetrovsk this took
a tragic turn. Toward the evening, January 7, a group of ice-fishers decided
to go home As it was a long trip, one of them, 33 year-old Ihor N., a driver
at a local repair-and-construction office, offered a ride in his car. The
fishing gear was loaded, five fishermen got in the car and drove off. The
driver decided to take a short cut over the ice to the nearest road. They
were thirty meters across the river when the ice under the overloaded Zhiguli
gave way. The car went under and only the driver and the passenger sitting
beside made it to the surface. The three in the back seat must have been
unable to open the doors due to the equipment.
Lifting the car with the victims from the bottom took a rescue team
of 15 and powerful machinery. The Dnipropetrovsk District Prosecutor's
Office states that criminal proceedings have been opened under Article
215, Section 3 of the Criminal Code (traffic violation). Law enforcement
statistics point to an increasing number of similar accidents, due to the
growing number of ice fishermen, among them many jobless or with pay arrears,
trying to support their families with cheap fish.







