Two Serious Snowmobile Accidents Over Weekend

FLORENCE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the weekend crash of three snowmobiles on a central New York trail, leaving two of the snowmobilers hospitalized.

The Oneida County Sheriff's Office tells local media outlets that Jason Harris of Bridgeport and Michael Whitehead of Syracuse were snowmobiling with a third man when they all went over an embankment on a sharp curve in the town of Florence late Saturday night on the 4th of January.

Harris was airlifted to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, while Whitehead was taken to Rome Memorial Hospital. Information on the extent of their injuries and conditions haven't been released. The third man was uninjured and refused medical attention.

The sheriff's office is still investigating the crash.

LYONS, N.Y. (AP) Earlier in the week an upstate New York man was killed in a snowmobiling accident and the two men riding with him ere charged with operating a snowmobile while intoxicated.

The Wayne County Sheriff's Office reported that 26-year-old Kory Rauscher of Waterloo in Seneca County was riding on a road when he drove into a guide rail around 3 am Friday 3rd January in the town of Lyons, about 30 miles east of Rochester.

Deputies say Rauscher was thrown from his sled. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said a 42-year-old Waterloo man and a 56-year-old man from Middlesex in Yates County were riding snowmobiles alongside Rauscher when he crashed. They were both charged with driving with a blood-alcohol content greater than .08 percent.