ERROL, N.H. – Employees at Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge in Errol, N.H., were trying to cope Wednesday with Tuesday night’s death of a co-worker from Maine, a spokesman said.
Elaine Barnett, 52, of Wilsons Mills in Lincoln Plantation, died after being pinned between her pickup truck and a refuge access gate, said New Hampshire state Trooper Paul Rella of Troop F in Twin Mountain, N.H., on Wednesday.
Rella said Barnett was found at 8 p.m. by a refuge employee about a quarter mile in on a sloped access road off Mountain Pond Road, which leaves Route 26 about three miles west of the Maine-New Hampshire line. Barnett was only supposed to work until 4:30 p.m.
Investigators are not sure how long she was pinned by the full-size 2002 Chevy extended cab pickup truck, or when the accident occurred.
Rella said that Barnett, who has worked at the refuge for seven years, had gotten out of the truck and was trying to open a gate when the pickup apparently slipped into her.
“It was a freaky thing. There was a lot of conditions that have to happen for this to happen,” Rella said.
She was taken to Upper Connecticut Valley Regional Hospital in Colebrook, N.H., and pronounced dead at 10:35 p.m.
Barnett “was very well liked and valued as a dedicated employee, and will be sorely missed,” said the refuge’s acting spokesman, Keith Weaver, on Wednesday.
Weaver, who manages the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge out of Brunswick, Vt., was filling in for refuge manager Paul Casey.
“It is a very sad situation. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to her family,” Weaver said.
The Lake Umbagog refuge straddles the Maine-New Hampshire border in Magalloway Plantation and Errol, N.H.
Barnett’s death remains under investigation.
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