Firefighters used ropes to secure the ATV in which Adhemar Cyr, 83, was trapped after the vehicle rolled backwards into a Leyden brook. They were able to keep the ATV from rolling over or sliding further into the brook. Recorder Staff/SHELBY ASHLINE
Firefighters used ropes to secure the ATV in which Adhemar Cyr, 83, was trapped after the vehicle rolled backwards into a Leyden brook. They were able to keep the ATV from rolling over or sliding further into the brook. Recorder Staff/SHELBY ASHLINE

LEYDEN – Six firefighters, two state police officers and one emergency medical technician responded to River Road shortly before noon after an 83-year-old man in an ATV rolled backwards into a brook.

While watching his daughter’s house, Adhemar Cyr had been driving the ATV on a narrow stretch of land between a brook and a backyard pond. As he was backing up to turn around, the ATV tumbled over the hill.

“I was screaming ‘No! No!’” said Cyr’s wife, Claudette Cyr. “But he didn’t hear me.”

Once firefighters from Leyden and Colrain responded, they tied ropes to the ATV’s wheels to ensure that it wouldn’t tip over or slide farther into the brook. They broke the plastic doors off the ATV to get Cyr out and placed on a stretcher.

While Cyr’s only visible injuries were some scrapes on his shoulders, he was taken bto Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield to be checked out.

Various responders and neighbors commented that Cyr was lucky on two counts: the ATV had a top and rollcage, and the water in the brook happened to be shallow Wednesday.