ST. AGATHA – A Massachusetts man became the Maine snowmobile season’s fourth fatality when he failed to negotiate a curve on a trail and struck a tree Friday night.

Richard B. Connolly, 28, of West Springfield, Mass., died at the scene of massive head injuries and a broken neck after his out-of control snowmobile went off the trail and into some alders. He struck an 8-inch-diameter poplar tree, according to Game Warden Edward Christie.

Connolly was snowmobiling with four friends when the accident happened at about 6:30 p.m. The group was on the way to supper at the Lakeview Restaurant, Christie said.

“It was an unwitnessed accident, but there was just too much speed involved,” Christie said. “Two friends ahead of Connolly and two others behind him did not see the accident happen.

“He was pronounced dead by paramedics who came to the scene at about 7:50 p.m.,” Christie continued. “There was no indication of alcohol being a factor.”

Christie said paramedics arrived at the scene 20 to 30 minutes after the accident.

The accident occurred just a short distance from where the trail comes off Long Lake, crosses Route 162 and leads to fields and woods at the rear of the Long Lake Motor Inn. Christie said the accident scene was about 400 yards from the motel.

The local club trail is not part of the ITS trail system. The snowmobilers were heading west on the trail.

“Speed was the cause,” Christie said. “It was not necessarily a high rate of speed, but it was too fast for that section of trail.

“I doubt that the corner can be made at more than 25 miles per hour,” the game warden said. “It is a very sharp turn, but it is very well-marked.

“Snowmobilers need to slow down,” he said.

Christie said the right-hand curve that Connolly failed to negotiate was 90 degrees or more. There was only minor damage to the sled.

The game warden was not “really sure” whether Connolly was on the sled when he hit the tree.

“I don’t know if he was trying to bail out when he hit the tree,” he said “The sled was a short distance past the tree.”

Christie said the men were staying at the Crown Park Inn at Caribou while they were in northern Maine. He said he had indications it was not the first time the men had been on the trail where the accident happened.

Connolly’s four friends are from Marlboro, Mass. Connolly had registered his sled in Maine on the previous day, Thursday.

The men were to have been in northern Maine until Sunday.

Connolly was driving a 1999 Yamaha 700 SRX. The three-cylinder sled is capable of speeds of 120 to 140 mph, Christie said.

Christie said Connolly leaves a wife who was four months pregnant with their first child.