An Eatonton man died Monday from injuries sustained when his ATV crashed into a utility pole a couple of days earlier.
Kenneth Reid Meyer, 31, of Eatonton, was pronounced dead at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta by a hospital physician, according to Putnam County Coroner Hollis Harrison. No autopsy will be done, Harrison added.
Meyer had been flown by Life Flight medical helicopter to Grady on Saturday afternoon, according to Putnam County Sheriff’s Office reports obtained by The Eatonton Messenger on Tuesday.
Meyer and a friend were each riding off-road vehicles along Flat Rock Road Saturday around 3 p.m. Meyer was on a Honda TRX300EX ATV and his friend was on a Yamaha dirt bike, according to Putnam Sheriff’s Deputy Clement Hutto’s report.
“(His friend) stated Meyer was ‘horsing around’ on the ATV while they were on Flat Rock Court,” Hutto wrote in his report. “(The friend) took his eyes off Meyer and when he looked back, Meyer had left the area.”
The friend told Hutto that he went searching for Meyer on Flat Rock Road, and found him lying on the side of the road near a utility pole. After checking Meyer, the friend called 911 and stayed with him until help arrived.
Putnam County Fire Department and Putnam County Emergency Medical Services personnel arrived, as did Hutto and PCSO Deputy Sgt. James Barbee. Hutto noted that Meyer was “seriously injured, was not responsive and was not breathing.” The EMS workers performed lifesaving measures while Meyer was loaded onto an ambulance and taken to PCFD Station 2 on Pea Ridge Road to meet the medical helicopter.
“He was then flown to Grady Hospital in Atlanta because there were flight restrictions in Macon due to President Trump giving a speech in the area,” Hutto said in his report.
Barbee and Hutto saw Meyer’s ATV in the woods approximately 30 yards from where Meyer’s was laying next to the utility pole. Assessing the markings on the ground, Hutto determined that the ATV left the road about 50 feet and traveled on the shoulder of the road before it hit the utility pole. Because the only damage to the ATV was to the handlebar and front light, Hutto said the ATV must have been overturning as it struck the pole.
“There was no damage to the front of the ATV that one would expect if it hit the pole straight on,” he added.