CONTACT:
Conservation Officer Matthew Holmes
603-788-4850
603-271-3361
February 8, 2021
Berlin, NH – On the afternoon of Friday, February 5, 2021, a 51-year-old woman from Hooksett, New Hampshire, was injured after her snowmobile fell onto the ice of the Dead River in downtown Berlin.
At approximately 2:00 p.m., 911 received a call for help from a snowmobiling party that was located at a bridge next to Snowmobile Trail 108 in the vicinity of Pleasant Street. The caller advised that a member of his snowmobiling party had gone off the trail and fallen onto the river ice and was requesting assistance at the scene.
Upon receiving the call, personnel from the Berlin Fire Department, Berlin Police Department, and Berlin EMS responded to the scene. There they located the crash victim on river ice below a steep drop off. Crews were able to extract the victim from the scene, and she was subsequently taken by Berlin Ambulance to Androscoggin Valley Hospital for treatment of serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
This incident was later investigated by a New Hampshire Fish and Game Department Conservation Officer. Evidence at the scene indicated that the operator took a turn too wide on an ungroomed section of trail, causing her machine to go over a snow berm and onto the river. The operator had limited snowmobiling experience and was riding a privately owned machine at the time of the crash. Her helmet was badly broken as a result of the crash, but certainly saved her from more serious injuries.