OAK CREEK - For six months after Nathan and Jennifer Kender went out for a morning snowmobile ride in northern Wisconsin and never made it home, their parents have wanted to know why the crash happened.

Now, after a report released by the Department of Natural Resources has cleared the young Caledonia couple of any wrongdoing in the collision that took their lives, Sue and John Kender and Brian and Patty Pallen want to do everything they can to keep other snowmobilers safe.

The Kenders and Pallens, both of Oak Creek, want to work with the Department of Natural Resources, state legislators and snowmobile clubs for stricter laws regarding snowmobiling. They also plan to raise funds for warning signs to be put up on the trail where Nathan and Jennifer were killed.

Sue Kender said they want something positive to come out of the tragic and senseless way her son and his wife died.

According to the crash reconstruction and analysis report prepared by an accident reconstruction specialist from the Oconto County Sheriff's Department for the DNR, the 39-year-old Illinois man whose snowmobile struck and killed Nathan and Jennifer Kender, was speeding and had drugs in his system at the time of the crash.

Scott J. Sumoski also died in the Jan. 3 collision.

Sue Kender said she and her husband John knew their son and daughter-in-law were innocent victims in the crash.

"This guy was on drugs," she said. "We were so angry when we found out. It was so painful. We wanted to prove they were innocent."

She said they also feel badly for Sumoski's family.

"It was devastating for everyone involved," Sue Kender said.

Nathan and Jennifer Kender, both 26, were up north with their family to celebrate the new year. On Saturday morning they left his family's home in Woodruff to go for a snowmobile ride.

Just before 10 a.m. they were riding on a trail that during the warmer months is an actual roadway called Vandercook Road in the town of Arbor Vitae in Vilas County.

The DNR report said Sumoski was traveling north on the same road. The Kenders were headed south.

Weather at the time of the crash was clear with good visibility. The trail conditions were good and smooth with no irregularities noted.

A slight bend in the road and a hill make it likely that neither snowmobile operator could see each other more than a few seconds before the crash occurred, the report says.

But the contributing factors to the fatal crash were high speed and marijuana on Sumoski's part, said Gary Eddy, the ATV and snowmobile administrator for the Bureau of Law Enforcement in the DNR.

"The trail itself is more catered for speed," he said.

Vandercook Road is not a typical trail because of its width, according to Eddy. Regular trails are a lot narrower and windier, requiring slower speeds.

The wide trail allowed Sumoski to go much, much faster, Eddy said.

Sumoski was going too fast for the curve and crossed into the path of the Kenders' snowmobile, according to the DNR report.

Sue Kender said her son, who was driving, may have seen him coming a split second before their sled was hit, but high snow piles on either side of the trail wouldn't have given him many options for getting out of the way. Nathan Kender tried to take evasive action prior to the crash, according to the DNR report.

"They had nowhere to go," Sue Kender said. "He had nowhere to turn."

After receiving the answers to the questions they had about the crash this summer, the next thing John and Sue Kender asked themselves was, "How can we help other people?"

They and the Pallens have been in contact with Eddy and State Rep. Mark Honadel, R-South Milwaukee, about their desire to change laws in Wisconsin for snowmobilers. During an upcoming Ride with the Angels from Kelly's Bleachers in Wind Lake to the Shamrock in Caledonia, these parents hope to raise money to make the trail where Nathan and Jennifer were killed safer. Sue Kender said they want to put up warning signs and a memorial plaque. They also hope to make a donation to the Minocqua Paramedics and the Cross Country Cruisers snowmobile club.

"We want to do something positive in their name," Sue Kender said. "We just want to help other people."