By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – The North Country’s Executive Councilor, Republican Joe Kenney, is calling for legislation in response to a spate of serious and in some cases deadly crashes involving snowmobile rentals.
This comes after two Massachusetts women without experience recently died on rented sleds in two separate incidents.
There have been a total of eight major crashes in just five weeks involving rented machines where inexperience was primarily a factor, said Fish and Game Lt. Mark Ober, Jr.
Ober said Tuesday the state’s only regulations are that rented sleds can go to only those with a valid driver’s license. Most rental companies require the individual to be at least 18 years of age, he added.
He said education and regulation is pretty much left up to the rental operators in the state.
Kenney, of Wakefield, said he is concerned that there is a lack of renter education.
He noted there is also an issue of a lack of resources in the North Country to help these people noting some communities do not have the same level of equipment as others.
Kenney also said some of the rented machines are very powerful and fast and that there may be ways to protect the public that should be considered.
In several of the accidents, improper throttle handling led to the crashes into trees.
“I don’t know if it’s all day or a half-day certification. It’s one thing if you own one of those things,” he said noting owned machines versus rented machines are different.
“But the way it’s set up right now, it’s not quality, it’s about volume for these people who do the rentals,” he said.
Kenney said critics have told him that the rental companies will move to Maine or out-of-state and it will impact tourism negatively. But he said he was looking at it from a safety and long-term tourism perspective.
“It’s a serious problem,” he said, noting that “absolutely” legislation is needed.
“I think we need to get the Commission of Safety, the Trails Bureau, the (Natural and Cultural Resources) Commissioner and the industry and you need to get them into a room and the commissioner needs to say, like ‘We have a problem here in our state’ and it starts right there. ‘You better fix it.’ I’m not saying that we are going to ‘fix it’ there are always going to be accidents. But when you see a trend line going way up, you are saying ‘we’ve got a problem.'”
Coos County has a small number of snowmobile rental businesses located in Gorham, Pittsburg and Twin Mountain which also rent ATVs and other off highway road vehicles.
The two fatalities in the 18 major crash cases so far this season involved renters from Northeast Snowmobile & ATV Rentals.
Officials did not return a request for comment on what level of education is offered, but its website suggested renters come 45 minutes early for their rental to watch a safety video and said the rules for rental involve speed limits. It did not specify the horsepower of the rented machines.
The idea seems to be resonating with some who responded on NH Fish and Game Law Enforcement Facebook page.
More than 100 people left comments and condolences on the tragedies and at least 29 responded positively to a post by Sue Antinoro who wrote, “It seems like each week there’s another death or major injury. There really needs to be a license test or some type of requirement before people can be allowed to ride.”
Others suggested the same for ATV rentals.