Freezing to Death

A pair of stories about people dying from the cold:

A Sheboygan County man who would have turned 59 on Christmas Day froze to death over the weekend after his SUV veered off the road in a snowstorm less than a mile from his home, according to the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department.

The body of Bobby Lewin, of N2560 Sheboygan County CC in the town of Lima, was found about 8:15 a.m. today in a field about 750 feet from his Chevy Trailblazer, Capt. Dave Adams said. He crashed in white-out conditions on Highway CC in the town of Holland, about a mile south of Hingham.

And:

Donald L. Blum, 54, of Monticello, died about 5 a.m. Monday at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, his death caused by hypothermia resulting in heart failure, Green County officials said.

Blum, an independent contractor who delivered the Wisconsin State Journal, was found still conscious outside his 1995 Buick at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday on Silver Road, about three miles east of Monticello.

A Mount Pleasant snowplow driver spotted his car, which Blum told sheriff's deputies had gotten stuck in a snowdrift at about 2:30 a.m., shortly after beginning his delivery route.

Blum apparently started to walk the three miles to town, but then headed back to the car, deputies said. He was taken to Monroe Clinic Hospital and then to UW Hospital, where he died.

I have to wonder whether they had cell phones or not, and if so, whether they simply decided not to use them.

If you have to be out in the cold, carry a cell phone. If you get stuck, use it. I'm sending myself an email right now to put some blankets or sleeping bags in our two vehicles tonight.