What began as a run of the mill selfie video of folks skating on Central Park Lake in New York City turned into a hectic rescue as a hockey player fell chest first through the thin ice.
While circumstances that lead up to the cold water immersion are unclear from the video, it looks like there is a puck on the other side of the hole man punch through and judging by his body position, he may have been laying down to disperse his weight in attempt to army crawl and retrieve it when he busted through. Thankfully there were plenty of bystanders around and they quickly extracted the man.
Interestingly, the 20-acre lake in Central Park was used for ice skating during the winter months from 1858 to 1950. After 1950 the lake rink was officially closed to skating to allow the former wildlife inhabitants to retake their former residence. While skating is no longer permitted on the lake, there are currently there are two main ice-skating rinks in Central Park, Wollman Rink and Gottesman Rink and a third free option is also available at Conservatory Water when proper ice conditions permit. Learn more about staying safe on frozen water HERE.
