Lincoln man killed in snowmobile accident in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

A Lincoln businessman died Friday night from injuries sustained in a snowmobile accident in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

David McEntire, 32, was traveling north on a designated snowmobile trail near Delaware, Mich., when he lost control of his snowmobile and hit a tree, according to the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Department.

McEntire was on a nighttime excursion that included five other snowmobiles when the accident occurred, investigators said.

Authorities said McEntire’s snowmobiling companions did not witness the accident, and that drivers from behind were the ones who found him.

McEntire was transported to Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital in Laurium, about 30 miles south of the accident site, where he was pronounced dead.

Law enforcement officials said the accident still is under investigation.

McEntire owned and operated McEntire Roofing Inc., a Lincoln construction company.

Lincoln resident Carie Groves, McEntire’s sister, said her brother and a contractor friend had started their trip by snowmobiling in Wisconsin, but then traveled into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, near the unincorporated community of Lac La Belle, which has an active summer and winter tourist industry, with many summer cottages and resorts.

Groves said McEntire’s family was not with him on the trip.

She said the group of snowmobiles was traveling anywhere from 50 to 80 mph when the accident occurred.  She said the group was spread out, and that one of them, traveling about half a block behind her brother, came upon the accident almost immediately.

Groves said this was McEntire’s third consecutive year to head north to ride snowmobiles.

“It definitely wasn’t his first time,” she said. “He was a man of great adventure.”

She said her brother was an organ and tissue donor and that doctors at the Michigan hospital were able to collect several items for transplant purposes.

“We lost a great man,” she said.

Among McEntire’s survivors are his parents, Ron and Terri McEntire; his wife Melanie; two young daughters, Halie and Siera, and his sister, his only sibling.
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