ELM RIVER TOWNSHIP – Few details have been release as of Monday regarding a weekend snowmobile fatality in Houghton County’s Elm River Township.

According to the Houghton County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched at 7:40 p.m. Saturday to reports of a snowmobile accident on to the Bill Nichols Trail, across M-26 from Penegor Road.

Sheriff Joshua Saaranen said deputies were requested to the scene after Central Dispatch, in Negaunee, was alerted to an iphone crash alert on Trail No. 3. Repeated calls to the cell phone’s number received no response.

Upon arrival, deputies found a deceased 44-year-old male from Illinois.

Saaranen said the Michigan State Police assisted at the scene as accident investigators, and as of press time Monday is was too early in the investigation to determine if alcohol was a factor in the crash. Speed has not yet determined to have been a factor as well.

According to Apple Support, iPhone Crash Detection is a safety feature on iPhone 14 and later that uses sensors to detect severe car crashes (front/side impacts, rollovers) and automatically calls emergency services and notifies emergency contacts if the user doesn’t respond, sounding an alarm and displaying an alert

The Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by Elm River First Responders, Michigan State Police Calumet Post, Mercy Ambulance, Houghton County Medical Examiners Office.