The death last summer of a 32-year-old man who was crushed by an all-terrain vehicle near Penticton has been ruled an accident.
According to a coroner’s report released Tuesday, Kyle Richard Hardisty, 32, died of blunt force trauma to his chest after the ATV on which he was riding tipped over and pinned him underneath.
The incident happened around 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 23, 2014, on the 201 Forest Service Road east of Penticton and involved a Razor ATV, which carries a driver and passenger side by side.
Hardisty and others had gathered at the site with trucks and ATVs, coroner Elizabeth Noble wrote in her report, and as the Razor began to leave, Hardisty jumped onto the passenger side and stood while the machine was moving.
“The Razor was in the process of making a left-hand turn and tipped over onto the passenger side with Mr. Hardisty being trapped under the ATV,” the coroner wrote.
Noble noted a dashboard camera in one of the trucks at the scene showed Hardisty “initially talking to someone on the driver’s side of the ATV and trying to get in,” then running around the front of the ATV and standing on the passenger side “when it began to move.”
Although bystanders lifted the Razor off Hardisty and rendered first-aid until an ambulance arrived, he soon became unresponsive and was pronounced dead three hours later at Penticton Regional Hospital.
No autopsy or toxicology tests were done, Noble said, because an examination of the body, medical records, observations at the scene and witness statements supported the cause of death. The coroner did not make any recommendations to help prevent future accidents of a similar nature.
While police initially asked for witnesses of the incident to come forward, Penticton RCMP spokesman Sgt. Rick Dellebuur said Tuesday no one has been charged in connection with Hardisty’s death.
