Case Study #9
A male operator in his mid 20’s, with two days of riding experience since he bought a new sled, was riding on a winding, curvy, uphill trail through the woods. He came upon a short stretch of trail prior to a sharp 90 degree turn (photo 1 – top left) that immediately went uphill at about a 20 percent grade. In the middle of the short straight stretch of trail was a narrow five-feet long bridge that had caused a small hump/mogul to be created in the trail, just past the bridge, as the result of lots of previous traffic (incident occurred in the early afternoon). He punched the throttle in an effort to catch up to his friends and bounced out of control when he hit the bridge. The snowmobile bounced into a tree (photo 2 – top middle) , throwing him off the snowmobile into the tree. The snowmobile veered right, down a hill and off the trail into the woods (photos 3, 4, and 5 – top right, middle left and center). The operator suffered severe injuries but survived the crash after being hauled out by rescue personnel (photo 6 – middle right). The snowmobile’s speedometer and tachometer stuck on impact, showing that the snowmobile was being operated at 50 miles per hour and 5200 RPMs (photo 7 – bottom).