Posted on 02/17/2003 8:00:32 AM PST by NewHampshireDuo
BERLIN — A Maine man training his sled dog team for a long distance race in northern Maine was seriously injured Saturday night when a snowmobile slammed into him on a trail outside of Berlin and continued on without stopping.
Investigators have few leads in the case, which left Stephen Hessert, 51, of Cumberland, Maine, in stable condition with serious leg injuries. He was airlifted from Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin to the Maine Medical Center Saturday night.
“We had two officers working though the night, following and exhausting leads,” said Capt. Tim Acerno. “We’ve got nothing.”
Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to call Berlin police at 752-3131 or Fish and Game at 271-3361.
Hessert was mushing his 16-dog team on a logging road about 10 miles from Berlin near Success Pond, which is also a snowmobile trail this time of year, at about 5 p.m. Saturday. A lone snowmobile came up behind him, striking him and shattering the sled. The impact was so strong it knocked both boots off his feet and broke both his legs.
Acerno said Hessert saw nothing. The snowmobiler did not stop.
Fortunately, Acerno said, given the frigid temperatures at that hour, another group of snowmobilers came upon Hessert, who was lying on the trail.
“There weren’t a lot of snowmobilers out (Saturday) night because it was so cold,” he said.
Hessert’s dog team remained with him. A friend of Hessert’s, Steve Crone, who owns the Telemark Inn in Bethel, Maine, retrieved the dogs after the accident and brought them to his home, Acerno said.
“He’s an accomplished, quiet musher,” Crone said. “He’s probably done this longer than anyone on the East Coast.”
Crone was with Hessert in the Berlin hospital emergency room and all the injured man’s concern was for his dogs.
After the crash, he said, Hessert was able to crawl to the sled and get the dogs in some kind of order. At the time of the accident, he had run the dogs for about 50 miles, so they were tired.
A group of six snowmobilers found Hessert on the trail, Crone said. Hessert had managed to get inside his sleeping bag in the sub-zero temperature.
“The dogs were so tangled up,” he said. “He was conscious and concerned for the dogs’ well-being and he helped (his rescuers) by verbally telling them to cut the coursers in three sections.”
None of the dogs were injured, but the crash did destroy Hessert’s Moody sled, Crone said.
Hessert, a Portland, Maine, attorney, is a popular member of the close-knit sled dog racing community and was training for the 250-mile Can-Am Crown, called the most challenging sled dog race in the eastern United States. It steps off from Fort Kent on March 1. Crone is also scheduled to run a team in the long-distance race
Hope he recovers and gets back to mushing quickly.
ALF is getting more dangerous all the time and anyone that uses animals for nearly anything is a target for the Animal Liberation Front.
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