Suicide Machines

Back at White Bear High, Michael Kane surveys the room solemnly. "I'm going to talk about alcohol," he says. "You have a couple of drinks, it's night, and you're off on your snowmobile."

Hands extended, he pretends to straddle a snowmobile, feigning a look around at the nighttime scenery. Then he twists the knife slowly: "Maybe they'll see the snowdrift and think, 'Wouldn't it be neat to jump?'" He tells of a snowmobiler who was thrown 100 feet from his machine, and another who was thrown 300 feet. "If I remember right, that person had been drinking," he says of the latter case.

Diana Watters

Take a snow day: A snowmobile-safety class taught at White Bear Lake High School

Related Content

• Eat Shop Kitchen & Bar's shrimp salad: 50 Favorite Dishes, no. 45
  February 20, 2013
• White Bear Lake's sudden shrinkage: DNR sued by group demanding less water pumping
  November 28, 2012
• Majority Leader-elect Bakk: "Some real liberal constituencies" pushing marriage equality bill
  November 30, 2012
• Steven Johnson accused of murdering wife in St. Paul, dismembering her with saw [UPDATE]
  January 9, 2013
• Steven Johnson went saw shopping at Menards after first attempt to dismember wife failed
  January 18, 2013

More About

• Michael Kane
• Nancy Hanson
• White Bear Lake High School
• Snowmobiling
• Extreme Winter Sports

By now he has everyone's attention. "All of a sudden you hit something and you're pushin' up daisies," he says matter-of-factly. "You're dead." Class dismissed.