Driving on thin ice

Three people are dead from driving on thin ice. Literally.

A pickup truck broke through thin ice on Lake Winnebago and sank Saturday morning, leaving two people dead and a young girl in critical condition. A third man died in a similar but separate accident in Superior a few hours earlier.

Calumet County authorities didn't release the names of the man or the 9-year-old girl who died in the Lake Winnebago accident, but relatives identified the man as Dan Kleinhans, 44, of St. Nazianz. He was declared dead at the scene at 2:20 p.m., about three hours after authorities were first alerted about the accident.

The truck hit a crack in the ice that had frozen over in a thin layer and was partially obscured by snow, Sheriff Jerry Pagel said.

"If you were not aware of it, you probably wouldn't have known it was there," he said.

They shouldn't have been driving on it, after the warm week we've had. And now a 9 year old girl is dead.

I have little patience for the death of common sense.