This in from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife:
SEBEC, Maine – A 17-year-old boy from Atkinson died Friday night when riding his snowmobile to a friend’s house for a sleepover.
Adam Brown, of Atkinson, drowned when his snowmobile fell through thin ice near the East End Outlet of Sebec Lake. This area of the lake is considered to be dangerous in the winter because the flow of water there lessens the opportunity for solid ice formation.
“Water goes through the dam there,†according to Warden Daniel Carroll Jr. of the Maine Warden Service, who investigated the accident. “One day you’ll have ice and the next day you’ll have open water.â€
Mr. Brown spoke to his family by cell phone around 5 p.m. when he was in Sebec Village. He had set out earlier to ride from his Atkinson home to Parsons Landing Road in Sebec, Carroll said.
When Mr. Brown did not arrive at his friend’s house, his family was notified and they attempted to reach him by cell phone. They got no response and contacted law enforcement to report him as missing.
The Maine Warden Service was notified at 9:45 p.m. Friday. Warden Carroll and Warden Mike Morrison set out on snowmobiles to search for Mr. Brown, and he was located at 6:30 a.m. today. (Saturday, Feb. 2).
“He was located in a place which had snowmobile tracks going to it but not leaving,†Carroll said.
Because of the thin ice conditions, the wardens needed to switch from snowmobiles to an airboat. Mr. Brown’s sled and gear were found first in eight feet of water, and Mr. Brown was located a short time later.
“He was on a dangerous section of the lake and the weather was extreme,†Carroll said. “It was raining even though it was 20 degrees out. So the rain was freezing on your windshield as you were riding and you had to keep clearing it off.â€
Mr. Brown’s family was notified of Adam’s death Saturday morning, and he was transported to a local funeral home.
Mr. Brown’s death is the second fatality of this year’s snowmobile season. On Jan. 4, a Kennebunk man was killed when riding on a shared trail in Sanford.
Posted by Tom Remington
