Two off-road vehicle owners learned an expensive lesson Sunday when their vehicles broke through thin ice on a prohibited area of Cedar Lake during an ice race Sunday afternoon.

Cedar Lake Police responded to the first vehicle — a Polaris UTV — sinking at the lake’s north end near Potawatomi Park and Meyer Manor, Police Chief Carl Brittingham said in a release Sunday night. The owner and his son got themselves into deep water but were able to get back to shore, he said.

Other off-roaders who were out there for Moto on Ice — an American Motorcycle Association-sanctioned event, according to its social media page — tried to get to them, but before police could stop them, a second person on an off-road vehicle sank as well. That driver, Brittingham said, got into another UTV and fled, leaving his vehicle in the lake.

Recovery efforts for the vehicles were scheduled for Monday, leaving the two vehicles sunk in the lake until then, Brittingham said.

“This incident points out the dangers of being on ice, especially with heavy vehicles,” Brittingham said in the release. “This area of the lake from shore to shore is not safe or frozen; water runs naturally under the ice from inlet to inlet, causing shelf-ice and open water.”

The area designated for Moto on Ice, however, is safe and regulated by event officials, who announced on its social media that none of their racers were among those who sank their vehicles.

“The ice races today attracted a large number of spectators who brought their off-road vehicles. They have no control over what others do outside of the event,” Brittingham said, adding that those who bring off-road vehicles must have them registered to be on property other than their own and that Moto on Ice doesn’t preclude off-road vehicle owners from not driving their vehicles on roadways.

Cedar Lake Police turned over the investigation to Indiana Department of Natural Resource officers, Brittingham said. Anyone with information about the driver of the white two-wheel drive off-road vehicle is asked to contact police.

Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.