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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Car surfing comes with deadly risks

Dead man 'flew off' outside of moving SUV

By: Gabrielle Giroday

Posted: 02/14/2012 1:00 AM

It's a risky fad with potentially deadly consequences.

But was it behind a fatal accident on the weekend?

Following the death of a 23-year-old man who had been holding onto the outside of a Ford Escape along a country road, the RCMP are still looking into what sounds like a classic case of car surfing.

According to police, the man died from injuries suffered early Saturday morning on Highway 248 near Elie when he "flew off" the roof of the SUV.

People in the community of Elie have identified the victim as Brodie Chabot, who reportedly worked at Chabot Implements and lived with a cousin in Elie.

RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Line Karpish said she couldn't call the accident an example of car surfing, but the man was "definitely hanging on the outside of the vehicle" before the crash occurred.

"We know he was hanging onto the vehicle. Exactly how, we don't want to pin ourselves down to that, because honestly, we don't have the precise look of it," Karpish said.

The 29-year-old man behind the wheel of the Ford Escape was arrested and RCMP said he'll face charges including impaired driving causing death.

"Very seldom are great decisions made under the influence of alcohol," Karpish said.

Chabot's relatives in Neepawa could not be reached for comment Monday, and other family in Elie didn't want to comment.

Dane Wilson, a former officer with the Winnipeg Police Service who now owns Crossroads Driver Training, said he's heard of vehicle surfing as a "fad now that younger kids are doing."

"That's probably why kids are doing it, because of the danger aspect of it," Wilson said. "It's living on the edge... so they do this not ever thinking anything would ever happen to them. They get on the roof of a car, the hood of a car. A lot of them stand up, some will lie down and hang onto the side."

He counsels people against the activity, which he calls extremely dangerous.

Wilson said when he was working as a police officer, he caught kids sitting outside passenger windows.

"I've pulled them over and charged them for dangerous riding," he said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes car surfing as "a thrill-seeking activity that involves riding on the exterior of a moving motor vehicle while it is being driven by another person."

According to an analysis of newspaper reports done by the CDC, 58 car-surfing deaths were reported from 1990 to 2008 in the United States, and 41 people were reported injured.

Online, homemade videos show thrill-seekers climbing out of a vehicle sunroof and standing on the front of a speeding car or using roof racks as grips as a vehicle hurtles along.

In the case of the Elie crash, Karpish said she wasn't aware of the people involved filming themselves.

The aftermath of the crash will loom large in a community of 650 people.

"It will hurt lots of people, I'll tell you that, because those kids are known," said Luke Legault, who owns Luke's Town Service in Elie, which sells vehicles such as ATVs. "It's going to hurt the town... It's not a good time."

Melody Bodnarchuk, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving's Winnipeg chapter, said the fatality is yet another example of the dangers of drinking and driving.

"It goes to show what kind of choices people make when they're drinking, as compared to when they're not," she said. "The choice to drive with somebody hanging off the back of your vehicle, the choice to be hanging off the back of the vehicle -- who knows? Impaired driving, impaired decisions."

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 14, 2012 0

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