ONTONAGON — For third time in the new year, a snowmobile fatality has occurred in the Western Upper Peninsula. The latest occurred shortly before one O’clock Friday afternoon in Ontonagon County.

According to a release from the Ontonagon County Sheriff’s Department, deputies were dispatched to a personal injury accident on Trail No. 3, known as the Bill Nichols Trail, near the Houghton County line. When deputies arrived they found the driver of the snowmobile, a 44-year-old man from Greenleaf, Wisconsin, was dead at the scene.

While the accident remains under investigation, deputies believe speed was a contributing factor in the fatal accident.

Assisting on the scene were officers from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Aspires MEDEVAC, Twin Lakes Fire and Rescue, the Ontonagon County Medical Examiners Office and 906 Services and Towing.

The incident marks the third snowmobile related fatality in the area in the past two weeks. The first occurred on Sunday, Jan. 5 on Trail 8 in Houghton County‚’s Duncan Township between M-38 and Kitchie Point Road .A 63 year-year-old man died in that accident..

Last Tuesday, a 56-year-old man was killed in an accident near Trail No. 1 in Ontonagon County’s Bergland Township. All three victims were from Wisconsin.