CONTACT: Conservation Officer Matthew Holmes 603-788-4850 603-271-3361 February 22, 2021

Shelburne, NH – On the afternoon of Saturday February 20, 2021, a Rhode Island woman sustained injuries after crashing her rented snowmobile into a tree adjacent to the Corridor 19 snowmobile trail.

At approximately 5:00 p.m., Allison Casey, 23, of North Kingston, RI, was riding with family and friends, traveling eastbound from the Maine state line toward the town of Gorham. At a location approximately 4.5 miles northwest of Connor Brook Road, Casey lost control of her machine in a winding, downhill section of trail. As a result of this, Casey went off of the trail and struck a tree. She and her passenger were both ejected from the machine and Casey sustained a leg injury as a result of the crash.

Following the crash, a member of Casey’s riding group made a 911 call for help. Upon receiving the call for help, personnel from the Shelburne Fire Department, Gorham Fire Department, and Conservation Officers from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department began a response to the scene. The crash had occurred at a remote location, and it took crews a significant amount of time to reach the scene via snowmobiles and a tracked rescue vehicle.

Once on scene, Casey was evaluated by EMS personnel and packaged in a litter. She was then transported out of the woods via a tracked UTV provided by the Gorham Fire Department and brought to a staging area located at the Maine/New Hampshire state line on US Route 2. Once roadside, Casey was taken by ambulance to Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Gorham for further evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

The cause of this crash is still under investigation. The operator was an experienced snowmobiler, and it did not appear that excessive speed contributed to the incident. The passenger on the involved snowmobile was uninjured as a result of the crash.

Conservation Officers would like to thank their local communities for their continued support of off-road rescue missions through manpower and equipment. A number of communities in Coos County have outfitted their Fire Departments with tracked rescue vehicles, which have become the “go-to” choice for getting patients in an out of the woods. These vehicles, combined with steadfast volunteers and mutual aid agreements amongst communities, have resulted in the best possible response for persons injured on the trails and in the woods of northern New Hampshire.