MIDDLEBURY, Vt., Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Three snowmobilers died Saturday when their machines broke through the ice of Vermont's Lake Dunmore, police said.
Three others in their party survived, Burlington's WCAX-TV reported.
"My people tell me the ice is very weak out there. It isn't very thick once you get out on the main lake and this is the main lake part of the lake out here. It's just not safe to be out there," Middlebury Fire Chief Rick Cole said.
Those pronounced dead at a hospital were identified as Bryanna Popp, 3, of Brandon, Carrie Flynn, 24, of Whiting and Kevin Flynn, 50, also of Whiting, the TV station said.
Pulled from the water and listed as surviving the accident were Jeremiah Popp, 6, and Terry Flynn, 47, home towns not reported. One unidentified driver was able to push her machine out of the water and rescuers pulled two other victims out of the water, WCAX said.
Area snowmobile riders said the lake had only recently frozen over.
"Well, it's been open water and we haven't had that much cold weather, and then we got that snow, which acts as a blanket insulation and it doesn't make the ice that it should," said Carl Murray of Bristol.
