CONTACT:
Conservation Officer James Cyrs III
Region One Office, Lancaster, NH
603-788-4850
603-271-3361
March 1, 2020
Gorham, NH – At about 4:15 p.m. on Sunday, March 1, 2020, Fish and Game was notified of a head-on snowmobile crash on the Presidential Rail Trail, also known as Corridor 12. The initial non-emergency phone call was placed by an employee of a rental company that owned a snowmobile involved in the crash. During this phone call, the reporting party explained that there were no injuries sustained during the crash and that the other snowmobile was also a rental from a different company.
Upon receiving word of the crash, a Fish and Game Conservation Officer responded to the scene a short distance from the parking area using a snowmobile and began his investigation. Once on scene, the two operators were identified as Judy Pilla, 59, of Boca Raton, FL, and Georges Aguehounde, 30, of Washington, D.C. Pilla and Aquehounde were operating in separate riding parties and did not know each other. The collision was found to have occurred immediately before a bridge in which the at-fault operator had caused the crash when they were attempting to avoid collision with another member of their riding party.
Both operators were wearing helmets at the time of the crash. The operator at fault was cited with a ticket for failing to turn to the right and reduce speed to avoid a collision, a violation level offense. With the nature of the crash, and the location of the crash scene, both operators are considered extremely lucky to have walked away without serious injury.