A Massachusetts woman was flown via medical helicopter to a local trauma center Saturday after she was seriously injured in a snowmobile crash in Milan.
N.H. Fish and Game was notified of the crash around 11:30 a.m. With its nearest conservation officer a significant distance away, two Coos County sheriff deputies and the Berlin and Milan fire departments responded instead, according to Fish and Game.
A member of the group who had medical training provided care to the victim, Eloara Machado, 41, of Methuen, Mass., until first responders arrived and called for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Advance Response Team helicopter. Machado was taken by ambulance to Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin and airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.
Coos County sheriff deputies determined that Machado went off the trail at a turn and struck a tree. She was thrown from the snowmobile and seriously injured.
Investigators believe inexperience was the primary contributing factor in the crash.
Later, about 2:30 p.m., conservation officers responded to another snowmobile crash in a driveway off Hillside Drive in Pittsburg, according to a news release.
Lori Bechtel, 61, of North Easton, Mass., was returning to camp when she failed to navigate a turn, exited the trail down a steep embankment and struck a tree. Bechtel was thrown from the snowmobile into another tree.
The extent of Bechtel’s injuries is unknown. She was placed on a liter and with the use of the Pittsburg Fire Department’s snowmobile and rescue sled taken to a waiting ambulance and on to Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook.
Investigators believe inexperience and inattention were the primary factors in the crash.
