Investigators consider excess speed as factor in fatal snowmobile crash

GARFIELD TWP. - Excess speed may have played a role in a fatal snowmobile accident in Garfield Township during the early evening hours of Friday, Jan. 18, according to Kalkaska County Sheriff’s Department investigators.

Timothy Edward Vertrees II, 45, of Charlotte reportedly died of injuries suffered in crash shortly before 8 p.m. Friday on Snowmobile Trail No. 76, between Devil Creek and Military roads.

“Vertrees was leading (a) group and, while navigating a curve in the roadway, the right ski of his 1996 Polaris Indy 500 snowmobile struck the hard, icy ridge along the end of the trail,” said Undersheriff David Wagner II in a prepared statement on the accident.

“Vertrees was ejected from the snowmobile and his head and body struck two separate trees,” Wagner added. “Vertrees was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, but the helmet was dislodged upon impact with the trees.”

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