SpinnerBait_Nut
Honorary Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2002
- Messages
- 17,651
Don't know how many of the members own/ride snowmobiles, but please be careful on them.<br /><br />I lost a friend, as close as a son really, to a snowmobile over the weekend and just found out about it by e-mail and phone.<br /><br />This happened in the state of Maine so some of the members may have heard about it.<br /><br />Below is a report by local Maine media on the accident.<br /><br />The boy was only 17. He had stayed in my house for a while when his parents were having a rough time in their life. Man it will be rougher now.<br /><br />Casco teen state's 15th snowmobiling victim.<br /><br />CASCO A Casco boy died Saturday from head injuries sustained in a snowmobile accident Friday afternoon on a trail near Route 121. Christopher Dion of 11 Mountain View Road was Maine's 15th snowmobile fatality of the winter, topping the previous seasonal record of 12 fatalities. Spokesmen for the Maine Warden Service said careless operation caused the accident and they renewed their plea for snowmobilers to drive responsibly.<br /><br />District Game Warden Steve Allarie said Dion was snowmobiling with a group of friends on a trail that runs along a natural gas pipeline and parallels Meadow Road, or Route 121. The accident happened around 3:20 p.m. about a mile south of Bakerstown Road or Route 11, near Quaker Hill.<br /><br />"He was traveling north, toward Route 11, when he intentionally went off the trail and hit an embankment at a high rate of speed," Allarie said. "He became airborne, which resulted in an accident that caused serious head injuries."<br /><br />Allarie said it appeared that Dion was trying to jump the embankment as his friends watched. He said Dion was wearing a helmet when he was thrown an estimated 40 feet from his 2002 Polaris snowmobile. The snowmobile landed right side up but was demolished. Allarie said alcohol wasn't a factor in the accident.<br /><br />"Basically, they were out there horsing around," Allarie said.<br /><br />Dion, son of Larry and Diane Dion, was transported to Maine Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition Friday afternoon. He was pronounced dead at 2 p.m. Saturday, Allarie said.<br /><br />The previous record of 12 snowmobiling fatalities was set in 1995-96 and matched in three other years over the past decade, including the past two winters. With this winter's heavy snowfall and low temperatures, the warden service expects snowmobiling to continue into April. Agency officials say they hope the number of fatalities doesn't continue to grow as well.<br /><br />"We're very, very frustrated at the high number of fatalities this year," said Lt. Nat Berry, division commander of the Maine Warden Service in Gray. "With a month of snowmobiling left this season, we're hoping the fatalities are finished. There's so much activity and people seem to be disregarding our plea to slow down and drive responsibly."<br /><br />Berry said Dion's death was particularly frustrating because it could have been prevented.<br /><br />"It was careless operation," Berry said. "It's a tragedy to lose a young life, but this accident didn't need to happen and most of them don't. We're hoping people will come to their senses and slow down so we don't have any more accidents, let alone fatalities. Snowmobiles aren't toys. They're a serious piece of equipment."<br /><br />This is the second snowmobile death that Allarie has investigated this winter. He investigated the first fatality of the season on Dec. 28, when 15-year-old Michael Huff of New Gloucester was killed driving into a chain that crossed a popular snowmobile trail in Gray. <br /><br />"It's getting very old for me," Allarie said. "Accidents do happen. It's a fact of life. They think nothing can happen to them because they're young. I'm looking for spring."
