CONTACT:
Conservation Officer Levi Frye
603-788-4850
February 23, 2024

Pittsburg, NH – On Thursday, February 22, 2024 at approximately 11:00 a.m., NH Fish and Game was notified of a snowmobile crash on Corridor 5 in the town of Pittsburg by NH State Police Troop F. The call came in to authorities reporting that a snowmobiler brought an injured rider into the United States Customs and Border Protection Port of Entry at the border of Canada and New Hampshire.

Upon seeing the patient a customs agent, who also happened to be a member of Beecher Falls, VT Fire and Rescue, recommended that an ambulance be called to evaluate the operator, who was a minor from New York. The Pittsburg Fire Department and 45th Parallel Ambulance personnel along with a conservation officer responded to assist the patient.

During the course of the interview with the minor’s riding companion, who was his father, it was determined that while traveling north on Corridor 5 towards the Canadian border, the youth failed to negotiate a right-hand corner on an icy section of trail. He rolled off the left side of his machine and into a tree. The youth’s father brought him to the Customs facility where authorities were notified.

The 45th Parallel Ambulance transported the youth operator to Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook with serious, but non-life threatening injuries.

An investigation into this crash revealed that the operators could not identify the exact location of the crash, just that it had happened on Corridor 5, since they both left the scene to seek help at the Port of Entry. However, it was determined that both operators’ machines were not registered to ride the snowmobile trails in New Hampshire. The youth’s father was issued a ticket for operating an unregistered snowmobile on the New Hampshire trail system.

Based on witness statements, it appears that an improper turn and inattention to trail hazards were the leading factors in this crash.

NH Fish and Game would like to remind riders that all machines operated on the NH snowmobile trail system must be registered, and to always ride within your limits.