Speed and a lack of familiarity with the area may have been factors in a snowmobile accident that killed a Connecticut man Saturday in Caratunk, the Maine Warden Service said.

The accident, reported at 12:41 p.m. on Fish Hatchery Road, was the second fatal snowmobile accident in central Maine in a week. Until then, there had been none this winter.

Lars Otto, 46, of Danbury, Conn., was pronounced dead at the scene said Lt. Kevin Adam of the Maine Warden Service.

“We heard that there was a bad snowmobile crash in the town of Caratunk,” Adam said. “Local EMS and game wardens arrived and between them were able to determine the man was deceased at the scene.”

Otto was riding behind another snowmobiler who did not see the crash happen, Adam said. Wardens haven’t yet determined how fast he was riding, but Adam said he was going fast enough that he failed to negotiate a corner, causing the sled to overturn and roll on top of him. There is no sign that alcohol was a factor.

The accident is the second snowmobile fatality of the season, after a crash last weekend claimed the life of a North Carolina man on Mount Kineo near Moosehead Lake.

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Arthur Meuse, a 42-year-old father of two, was killed when he lost control of the snowmobile he was driving on the Route 66 snowmobile trail in Days Academy Grant Township. Meuse was riding with friends and was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of that accident is still under investigation, but Adam said speed was also a contributing factor.

“Most of the crashes that we’ve had in my division have been due to people going too fast,” Adam said. “The last few weeks have been very busy. People just need to enjoy the trail and slow down.”

According to his LinkedIn page, Otto was the general manager and president at The Otto Company, a plumbing, heating and cooling business in Danbury. Firefighters from Bingham and the West Forks assisted at the scene.

Rachel Ohm — 612-2368

rohm@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @rachel_ohm


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