Last Thursday, 52-year-old Ralph Ferguson was riding his snowmobile with a group of friends in Pittsburg when, swinging wide on a left turn, he hit a group of trees.
Ferguson, a Haverhill, Mass., resident, was thrown from his machine. After a 911 call, he was transported by DHART helicopter to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for serious injuries.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department said the cause of the crash was likely unreasonable speed.
Ferguson’s is one of about 70 snowmobile incidents reported by Fish and Game this winter. While the number of incidents is average according to conservation officer Major John Wimsatt, the seven fatalities resulting from these snowmobile accidents is a spike.
“The average number of snowmobile-related fatalities hovers around two to four,” Wimsatt, who oversees the department’s snowmobile and off-highway recreational vehicle programs, said.
He said the 2014-15 winter – the season most comparable to this year in registration numbers and good snowfall – had 86 reported snowmobile accidents and two fatalities.
“This year it’s certainly much higher than the norm,” Wimsatt said. “(A) part of that is the tragic events that occurred on Feb. 11 on Lake Winnipesaukee that involved very unstable ice conditions.”
Eleven separate snowmobile incidents took place that weekend. Five people fell through the ice on Winnipesaukee, and while two men were found and given medical treatment, a 15-year-old boy and two more men died.
The bodies of the boy and one of the men were found and retrieved using an underwater robot belonging to Fish and Game. Another was found unresponsive, clinging to an ice floe, before he ultimately died.
Responding to these incidents is taxing for a department that Wimsatt said is at a historically low staffing level. Accidents often take place in remote locations, can happen at odd hours, and, if serious bodily injury occurs, require a blood draw for an investigation.
“Because of the higher-than-average fatalities – those are very involved investigations – that has certainly put more strain on our resources,” Wimsatt said. “Our officers have many towns each to cover, so when a call comes in, they’re often getting called out at night or during their off-duty time.”
This year has been particularly intense, Wimsatt said, due to the volatility of the winter weather.
“We’ve had just rapidly changing conditions,” he said.
With a cold, snowy December, then a warm January, then a particularly wintry February, and yet again another warm period in March, water wasn’t able to reliably freeze.
“It resulted in large sections of our biggest lakes not freezing sufficiently or in some cases not at all,” Wimsatt said. “We promote it heavily – all ice needs to be considered unsafe until you’ve tested it yourself.”
Conservation officers continue to urge safety as riders flock to the North Country, the area of the state Wimsatt said still has good snow. It will likely be drawing snowmobilers for another two or three weeks.
“It’s some of the best riding conditions they’ve seen all winter,” he said.
While Fish and Game is cautioning riders with springlike conditions in the coming weeks, the department is also promoting snowmobiling as a recreational opportunity thanks to the state’s 7,000 miles of trail.
“It contributes millions to the economy in New Hampshire,” Wimsatt said.
A 2011-12 Plymouth State University study shows the sport has a $586 million impact on the state annually.
The conservation officer said snowmobiling is an overall positive thing for the state, especially given that some 47,700 snowmobilers have registered to ride in New Hampshire this year.
“While there are some accidents and some fatalities – which all of us in the snowmobile community are trying to (prevent) – considering the number of participants, it’s a safe and family sport,” Wimsatt said.
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter
@elodie_reed.)