By Scott Monroe
The Morning Sentinel
JACKMAN, Maine — Jackman area rescuers were busy Saturday morning when two separate snowmobilers got into accidents within minutes of each other.
That left officials scrambling to assemble rescue toboggans and their only two ambulances to reach the victims. At least one of the snowmobilers had to be transported from Jackman to a Waterville hospital.
“It stretched our resources,” said Bill Jarvis, fire chief of the Jackman-Moose River Fire Department, on Sunday.
The first accident was reported at 9:45 a.m. Saturday off Long Pond Road in Jackman. Jarvis said a female snowmobiler heading south on the ITS-89 trail network had rolled over. Other snowmobilers in her group called 911.
“The handlebars got her in the abdomen,” Jarvis said.
Jarvis said he and other officials began responding, assembling a snowmobile trailer and rescue toboggan, and heading toward the scene.
Then, at 9:58 a.m., another snowmobile accident was reported on ITS-89. Snowmobilers had called the Jackman Regional Health Center instead of 911.
A male snowmobiler heading north on the trail, in nearby Moose River, had crashed when approaching a corner after a long straight-away. Jarvis diverted from the first call to assemble another trailer and toboggan, which were stored elsewhere.
Both of Jackman’s ambulances were dispatched to the crash scenes.
Jarvis said the female snowmobiler in the first accident was treated at Jackman health center’s urgent care department, then transported by ambulance to MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Thayer Campus on Waterville.
He didn’t know the identities of either snowmobiler, nor the extent of their injuries.
Jarvis said there are typically several snowmobile accidents every year that his department responds to, and sometimes the reports come in one after another, but “we just don’t usually have them at the same time.”
According to a Somerset County dispatch log, officials from the Maine Warden Service responded to both scenes and left shortly after 10 and 11 a.m.
Deborah Turcotte, a spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said Sunday that wardens had not informed her of the incidents. Turcotte said she is typically notified only when serious injuries are involved.
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