Richard K. Horton, 50, killed after his snowmobile strikes a tree in Franklin County, Maine

A New Jersey man was killed Sunday morning in a fatal snowmobile crash, the Maine Warden Service reported in a prepared statement. At 11:09 a.m., the Warden Service investigated a crash on a snowmobile trail in Farmington off Holly Road. Richard K. Horton, 50, of Delran, NJ, was snowmobiling with two friends when his machine struck a tree on the edge of the trail. Medical workers pronounced Horton dead at the scene. Neither speed nor alcohol was a contributing factor in the incident; however, operator inexperience and riding in an unfamiliar vehicle were involved, the Warden Service reported. Horton was operating a borrowed snowmobile, investigators said. The incident remains under investigation and will be reviewed by the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office. Horton’s death is Maine’s third snowmobile-related fatality this snow season. The first fatal crash occurred in Byron on Jan. 31. The second fatal crash took place in Dixfield on Feb. 1.