Newport Vermont Police Department Responds After Four People Fall Through Ice

PRESS RELEASE

NEWPORT — Chief Travis Bingham reports that the Newport Police Department (NEPBA Local 434) responded after four people fell through the ice at Lake Memphremagog on Saturday.

On Saturday, Feb. 17, at approximately 5 p.m., Newport Police received a report that a side-by-side vehicle had fallen through the ice on the South Bay of Lake Memphremagog, plunging four victims — including two children — into the water.

Upon arrival, all four victims had extricated themselves from the water and informed officers that the vehicle, a 2019 Honda Pioneer 1000, was now at the bottom of the lake. Three people ran toward officers while pulling a black sled, in which a man was administering chest compressions to a 3-year-old child who had fallen through the ice.

Officers asked the man to resume chest compressions on the child while the officers pulled the sled to shore to get the child to rescue as quickly as possible. After the child was transferred to EMS, they assisted in tending to the other victims who all appeared to be in a state of exhaustion/hypothermia.

Newport Ambulance Service and Newport City Fire Department also responded to the scene. Newport Ambulance met officers at the shore and began providing aid to the child, who was then transported to North Country Hospital. The other three victims were driven to NCH by bystanders via personal vehicles and were escorted by a Newport officer.

The incident remains under active investigation by the Newport Police Department.