Went out for a ride yesterday with a mate. He was in an Arctic Cat Prowler 700 XT. It’s been raining here in the North of Australia for several weeks almost non stop. The wet season is really upon us. So there was plenty of ground water to ride through. We were cruising along at a far pace on a good dirt road about 70kph (about 45mph). When we came around a bend into a body of water. The buggy was in the lead and hit the water under brakes. It seemed to aquaplane and then lurched to the right and then slowly roll onto the drivers side and came to a stop in a cloud of water. I pulled up pretty quick and raced Over to help my mate out of this seat belt. He was almost under water. It was just less than knee deep. His wife was in the passenger seat high and dry, hanging in her seatbelt and they had a young child about 7yo with them in the middle seat. Also stuck in his belt. Needless to say they were both freaking out. I managed to calm them down and got each out of their belts in turn. Then went about using the winch on my grizz to pull the buggy right way up. It wasn’t until then that I even though about getting some pics. Lol. But a valuable lesson learnt here. Slow down along unknown tracks. Wear a helmet. Neither my mate or his wife had a helmet on. The young child did. Wear some gloves. The only injury was my mates hand. It came out of the cabin and hit the ground when it rolled over. Mostly minor cuts and scrapes to his left hand.

Without blowing my own horn it was very lucky I decided to go out with them. The grizzly performed flawlessly in the recovery operation. But above all else keeping a clear head in an emergency situation can make all the difference.

Have fun out there boys and girls but be safe. Enjoy the holidays and return to your loved ones.