On February 4, my 18- and-a-half-year-old son and I drove up to my in-laws house in southern Vermont to get a few hours of snowmobiling in on a beautiful day. We went one a half miles and were stopped by the Wilmington police on two sleds, who checked our registrations and liability policies, which were up-to-date.
They then asked my son how old he was. Then they wrote him a $77 citation for not having a safety course certificate.
They could have chosen to inform us of this law, give him a warning, and tell him to go back one a half miles to the house, but they didn’t. They chose to write up a high school senior, without a job, to pay the state $77 (maybe it goes to pay the people who wrote the law)!
In reference to this citation, is it really a law that anyone born after 1983 in or out of the state needs a safety course certificate to operate a snowmobile in your state?
How absurd! Are you telling me a person can drive a tank in Iraq, defend their country, and then come home and are not allowed to drive a snowmobile on trails in Vermont without going through a safety class?
I was under the assumption that if you didn’t have a driver’s license or you were under a certain age then I could see that a safety course was needed, but to go back to 1983? So, in 2013, a 30 year old still needs one, and in 2023 a 40 year old still needs one? What a joke!
This law only proves one thing, a way to get money for the state. I think you need to put up a sign as you enter your state, from all directions, to notify people of this law. Then maybe they’ll turn around and spend their tourist dollars in some other state.
I have always loved Vermont and have vacationed there many times, bringing my family and spending a lot of my money. I thought its people were logical and full of common sense.
Maybe the people are, but certainly not the lawmakers.
Long live stupidity!
Phil Jurczk
Gilbertville, MA
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