Girl injured in snowmachine collision on Big Lake

BIG LAKE — Alaska State Troopers say an 8-year-old girl had to be flown to the hospital after she was hurt in a snowmachine collision on Big Lake.

Troopers were summoned to the scene at 11:36 a.m. on Sunday.

They say two Polaris Indy snowmachines were driving on the lake near Shepherd’s Island, coming from opposite directions but driving toward one another.

“Both drivers attempted to veer to avoid each other and turned into each other’s paths, colliding almost head-on,” troopers report.

The 8-year-old, Jurnee Lowe, of Anchorage, was riding on one of the machines, sitting in front of her brother, Jered Lowe, 21, of Anchorage, as he drove.

Jurnee Lowe and the driver of the other machine, Tim Reading, 44, of Anchorage, were taken to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

Reading went there in an ambulance, Lowe in a helicopter.