CONTACT:
Lieutenant Mark Ober
Region One Office, Lancaster, NH
603-788-4850
603-271-3361
February 23, 2020
Columbia, NH – On Sunday, February 23, at approximately 10:15 a.m., Fish and Game Conservation Officers received a 911 call for a single person snowmobile crash on Corridor 5 in the town of Columbia. The caller reported that a 70-year-old male had been ejected from his snowmobile after striking trees and a rock and had sustained unknown injuries. Rescue personnel from Colebrook Fire & Rescue and 45th Parallel Ambulance responded to the scene along with Conservation Officers.
The operator of the snowmobile, identified as Clifton Boudle, Jr., 70, of Columbia, NH, had been operating south on Corridor 5 with three other companions when the crash occurred. The cause of the crash remains under investigation; however, initial indications suggest that rotating the throttle lever on the handle bar to a position where Boudle could manipulate the throttle with his fingers, instead of his thumb, may had been a contributing factor. Boudle’s 2017 Ski-Doo Rendegade Enduro 1200 sustained substantial damage in the crash.
Boudle was transported from the scene via rescue sled by Colebrook Fire & Rescue and placed in the 45th Parallel ambulance, which was staged on Bunnell Rd., just off from Bungy Rd. Boudle was transported to the Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital’s helipad (UCVH) in Colebrook. From there he was airlifted by DHART helicopter to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). His condition remains unknown at this time.