Snowmobile accidents leave one dead, two injured

A snowmobiler from Fort Kent died Sunday night of head injuries suffered in a crash in a remote area of Aroostook County, one of three serious snowmobile wrecks across the state during the weekend.

Gilles Levesque, 40, died at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where he had been flown after the crash in Big Twenty Township on Friday, said Lt. Mike Marshall of the Maine Warden Service. Levesque was a police officer in Fort Kent.

Levesque had been snowmobiling with a group in Big Twenty Township near Estcourt Station on the border between Maine and Quebec about 4:30 p.m. Friday, according to Marshall.

Levesque’s snowmobile went airborne off the end of an airstrip runway and flew nearly 100 feet before hitting a tree. Levesque landed on the ground 25 feet beyond.

The sled, a 580 Arctic Cat, and its rider were airborne for 96 feet before hitting an 8-inch-thick fir tree, which caused Levesque’s helmet to split apart and fall off his head. Levesque traveled another 25 feet before landing, Marshall said.

Part of the face shield remained in the tree, Marshall said.

According to state police, a member of the snowmobiling group called for help from the U.S. Customs office on the border.

A LifeFlight helicopter from Bangor was summoned to rescue the injured man, since there are no plowed roads into the remote area where the accident happened.

Meanwhile, an ambulance from Fort Kent traveled through New Brunswick and Quebec to reach a meeting point where it could transport Levesque to a hospital.

To prepare for the helicopter’s arrival after sunset, five game wardens packed the snow down so the aircraft could land, Marshall said. In addition, they parked their snowmobiles in a circle, leaving the headlights on to form a lighted circle showing the helicopter where to land.

Warden Charles Richard of Fort Kent also forwarded the injured man’s location to the aircraft using coordinates from a Global Positioning System unit, Marshall said.

Levesque was reached about 8:30 p.m. Without the LifeFlight rescue, Levesque probably would have been placed on a toboggan and towed to where the ambulance waited near the Quebec border, according to Marshall.

The snowmobile was demolished in the accident. Marshall said the investigation into the accident was still under way.

The LifeFlight helicopter from EMMC also was called Saturday afternoon to a snowmobile accident near Northeast Carry.

Steven Cole, 45, of Portland was seriously injured when the snowmobile he was driving left the trail and struck a tree, according to Maine wardens at the Greenville headquarters.

The call came into the wardens’ office from Raymond’s Store in Northeast Carry. Several wardens were traveling with the Ricky Craven fund-raising snowmobile ride and were dispatched to the scene.

An ambulance crew from Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital in Greenville was near Rockwood and was able to make the trip to Northeast Carry by snowmobile. The trip took about 20 minutes, rather than the two-hour trip by road, according to wardens.

Cole was taken to EMMC with serious chest and back injuries, according to an official at warden headquarters. He later was transferred to a Portland hospital by ambulance to be closer to his home. Cole’s son, Shawn, 14, who was traveling with him, was not injured, wardens said.

A snowmobiler escaped serious injury when his sled was hit by a freight train near Maranacook Lake in Winthrop.

Bruce Armstrong, 53, of Manchester stopped at some railroad tracks, looked and saw the train coming, according to authorities. But when he tried to back up, Armstrong couldn’t get his sled to move fast enough and the train hit it.

The crew stopped the train, disconnected the locomotive from a boxcar and transported Armstrong into town. Armstrong was taken to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, where he was treated for a bump on the head and released, Mark Latti of the Maine Warden Service said.