By Julia Bayly
Bangor Daily News
WINSLOW, Maine — The brother of a Maine Sports Hall of Fame inductee who died in a snowmobile crash earlier this month in Quebec is saying paramedics refused to render care because they did not want to go to the accident in a wooded area about a mile from the nearest road.
Glenn Dumont, 69, died March 2 after his snowmobile collided with another snowmobile about 60 miles north of Quebec City, according to an online report by CBC Montreal.
His brother Lewis Pelletier told the CBC that Dumont was unconscious but still breathing after the accident and that an ambulance with paramedics responded to a 911 call requesting help.
But the paramedics stopped on a road near the trailhead, and when a snowmobiler with Dumont’s party offered to take them to the accident, they refused, citing government regulations dictating they can refuse to intervene if they believe taking action might put them in danger, according to the CBC report.
Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette told the CBC Tuesday that a coroner will investigate Dumont’s death.
“We all need to understand that in this province paramedics do have the possibility to provide services on snowmobile trails, but only under specific conditions where they have to make sure security is there,” Barrette told reporters at the National Assembly of Quebec.
“Light has to be shed on this event to see if things went according to protocol,” he said.
According to the CBC, the regulations say paramedics may travel to a scene on a snowmobile or an all-terrain vehicle, but only if they have proper safety equipment such as a helmet, and that they should be accompanied by a police officer, firefighter or other designated volunteer.
Pelletier told the CBC his brother stopped breathing 45 minutes after the accident and another snowmobiler then began performing CPR.
Pelletier said one of the other snowmobilers was finally able to dig out a sled that had been buried in a snowbank after the crash. He said they strapped his brother to the sled and took him out to the ambulance, but it was too late.
Dumont was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame last year.
The 1965 Winslow High School graduate was considered the greatest running back the school ever had, and he went on to play football as an All-American at American International College in 1969 where he was named to that school’s hall of fame and holds the record for the most points scored in a football career.
In 1970, Dumont was a 14th round draft pick for the Kansas City Chiefs.
He was a teacher and coach at his high school alma mater and helped take that football team to state titles in 1973 and 1976.
Pelletier told the CBC that the regulations he believed contributed to his brother’s death are “absolutely asinine” and they had no idea they were even on the books.
“[Quebec is] advertising the snowmobile industry,” Pelletier told the CBC. “Little do we know that this is all they do is advertise, but if you get in trouble, you’re on your own.”
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