Fort Collins, CO : 69-year-old man killed in ATV accident in rural Larimer County on Sunday, January 18, 2015

A 69-year-old Pinewood Springs man died Sunday after the ATV he was driving rolled backward down an embankment and trapped him in rural Larimer County.

Emergency crews were called about 11 a.m. to the 300 block of Iroquois in the Pinewood Springs residential neighborhood in Lyons, said Greg Fairman, an investigator with the Larimer County Coroner's Office. That area is about 10 miles southeast of Estes Park.

William Anthony Wilkins, who went by Tony, was driving an ATV toward a line of trees to retrieve a massive water storage tank that had blown away the previous night, Fairman said. Wilkins drove the vehicle down a gully, and as he climbed back toward the top, the vehicle didn't have have enough power to crest the ridge.

The approximately 800-pound ATV rolled backward and landed on Wilkins about 30 feet below, pinning him between a rock and the vehicle.

Neighbors rushed to the scene and began CPR. It was determined in a Monday autopsy that he died by mechanical traumatic asphyxia, Fairman said.

The ATV had just 20 miles on its odometer, Fairman said. Wilkins was not wearing a helmet, and neither drugs nor alcohol were believed to have contributed to the crash.

"It's just an absolutely horrible, unfortunate accident," he said.

Wilkins was the first vehicle-related fatality in Larimer County of 2015.

Source :
69-year-old man killed in all-terrain vehicle accident in rural Larimer County