Courtesy photo The helmet Taylor Beck was wearing when she lost control of her snowmobile and was thrown into a tree is pretty banged up, but investigators said the fact she put it on probably saved her life. (Courtesy photo)

BENNINGTON – The latest in a series of snowmobile crashes in recent days across the state left a 22-year-old woman with serious injuries, but the fact she had the wisdom to put on a helmet before venturing out may very well have prevented a much more tragic outcome, according to law enforcement officers.

Taylor Beck, who a state Fish and Game conservation officer said lives in the town of Hillsborough, but who also is listed as a resident of Goffstown, apparently lost control of the snowmobile while traveling on the Corridor 6 Snowmobile trail in Bennington, conservation officer Nicholas Masucci said in a statement issued over the weekend.

Masucci said it appeared that Beck, as an inexperienced rider, “failed to avoid an uneven section of the trail.” She was thrown from the machine and into a tree, an impact that, Masucci said, caused “serious bodily injuries that likely could have been fatal if she was not wearing a helmet.”

Masucci said two nearby conservation officers responded to the scene, along with police and emergency medical services crews from Bennington and nearby Antrim.

Together they worked to stabilize Beck, then carried her down the trail to an awaiting ambulance, which transported her to Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough for further evaluation.

Courtesy photo The heavily damaged snowmobile from which a 22-year-old woman was thrown and seriously injured lies on the side of the Corridor 6 trail in Bennington. Officials said the fact the woman was wearing a helmet probably saved her life. (Courtesy photo)

Meanwhile, several other snowmobilers suffered varying degrees of injury in weekend crashes across the state.

Late Friday afternoon, a Milton man identified as Anthony Silvestri, 49, was taken to Portsmouth Hospital for treatment of what officials called serious injuries after the snowmobile he was operating on Alton Bay struck a pile of hard snow, which caused the machine to tumble end-over-end several times.

The crash occurred near Echo Point in Alton Bay, the lakeside community at the southern end of Lake Winnipesaukee.

The extent of Silvestri’s injuries wasn’t provided, other than being described as serious.

A Fish and Game spokesman said the crash occurred during “near white-out conditions.”

Shortly after noontime on Saturday, meanwhile, a female Fish and Game officials identified as a juvenile was traveling in a group of seven snowmobilers on Trail 142 in Pittsburg, the state’s northernmost town.

At some point she attempted to make a downhill, left-hand turn, according to witnesses and evidence found at the scene, a Fish and Game spokesman said.

But she was unable to negotiate the turn, causing her machine to travel over an embankment and crash into multiple trees, he said.

She sustained injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening, for which her riding companions “immediately rendered aid.”

Because the far-northern outpost of Pittsburg has, at best, spotty cell phone service, “multiple bystanders” took off and traveled until they were able to get a signal in order to call 911, the spokesman said.

Pittsburg police and firefighters, along with the 45th Parallel EMS team and Fish and Game officers responded to the scene, and utilized the fire department’s rescue snowmobile to reach the scene, stabilize the operator and transport her to an awaiting ambulance.

She was then taken to Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook.

The spokesman said the on-scene investigation indicates that both inexperience and unreasonable speed for the existing conditions were factors in the crash.

A few hours later, around 5 p.m. Saturday, first responders from the eastern Coos County town of Shelburne, along with a crew from neighboring Gorham and Fish and Game conservation officers, were called to a report of a snowmobile crash involving injury on a trail known as Corridor 19.

About 4.5 miles up the trail from Connor Brook Road, rescuers located the crash scene, where they found Allison Casey, 23, of North Kingston, Rhode Island, suffering from a leg injury.

A spokesman said Casey was riding with a group of family and friends on rented snowmobiles, having just crossed into New Hampshire from Maine, where they began their trip.

The investigation showed Casey lost control of her machine while negotiating a winding, downhill section of the trail, resulting in the snowmobile leaving the trail and crashing into a tree.

Casey and her passenger were both ejected from the machine. Her injury isn’t believed to be serious, and the passenger was uninjured, the spokesman said.

Once stabilized, Casey was transported out of the woods via a utility terrain vehicle equipped with tracks that was provided by the Gorham Fire Department.

She was brought to a staging area set up on Route 2 at the New Hampshire-Maine border, where she was transferred to an ambulance and transported to Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Gorham for further evaluation and treatment.

The spokesman described Casey as an experienced snowmobiler, and said it does not appear that excessive speed contributed to the crash.

Another in the series of crashes resulted in injuries to a Massachusetts man deemed serious enough that crews transported him via medical helicopter to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, a spokesman said.

He said Robert Gilchrist, 58, of North Grafton, was riding with two other snowmobilers on Trail 3A, also known as the Rail Trail, in the town of Colebrook, around 6 p.m.

As Gilchrist traveled toward the Colebrook-Stewartstown line, the spokesman said he “failed to identify that he was coming up on a bridge crossing in the trail, which created a large hump on the normally flat terrain.”

Upon striking the hump, Gilchrist lost control of the machine, which rolled over multiple times, the spokesman said.

While his riding companions did not see the crash happen, they came upon him moments later and found him sitting up on the trail “and rushed to his side.”

They called 911, summoning Colebrook police, firefighters and rescue personnel along with the 45th Parallel EMS to the scene.

The 45th Parallel EMS, named for its location, is a nonprofit medical service based in Colebrook that provides emergency services to about a dozen surrounding towns in New Hampshire and Vermont.

Masucci, the conservation officer, said Fish and Game officials urge snowmobilers to always wear helmets and other protective gear, and to ride “within their limits.”

As for operating snowmobiles or other off-road vehicles on frozen bodies of water, the department said it’s important for riders to keep in mind not just the possibility of thin ice, but the “many (other) hazards” inherent in such operation.

Among them are “pressure ridges, snowbanks, navigational buoys, docks and snow-covered rocks. “Visibility can be substantially reduced during snowfall, sun glare and nightfall … it is recommended to reduce speed to substantially minimize these risks,” officials added.

For more information on snowmobiling and operating off-highway recreational vehicles (OHRV), including rules, guidelines, safety courses, trails and clubs, go to www.ride.nh.gov.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.