Portage Lake Woman Killed in Snowmobile Crash

A Portage Lake woman was killed when she was thrown from her snowmobile on Saturday.

Maine Warden Corporal John MacDonald said in a press release that the accident happened Saturday afternoon, just before four o’clock, on Carr Pond, which is just west of the town of Portage Lake. Fifty-year-old Denise Beaulieu was fatally injured in a single-snowmobile crash as she was operating the sled at a high rate of speed on the pond.

The crash happened when Beaulieu tried to exit the lake on a trail that led to a parking lot. Her sled struck a snowbank and the impact caused the woman and her snowmobile to become airborne before hitting several trees. Beaulieu was wearing a helmet and wardens say speed appears to have been a contributing factor in the crash.

MacDonald says Beulieu had been attending a social function at a camp on Carr Pond with friends and the accident happened as she was taking a friend’s snowmobile for a ride. Two friends witnessed the crash.

Ashland Fire & Rescue assisted the Maine Warden Service.