William French, 55, of South Glens Falls, was killed Saturday afternoon after his ATV struck a culvert pipe on the Deer Valley Club trails in Indian Lake, throwing him from the vehicle. Medical personnel tried to help him at the scene, but he was pronounced dead there, according to New York State Police.
Troopers responded to the Deer Valley Club trails in the Adirondack Park at approximately 4:28 p.m. on October 3, 2026, for a reported ATV collision, according to a New York State Police statement. A separate account from mynbc5.com puts the response time at 4:30 p.m., a discrepancy that remains unresolved between the two accounts. Either way, French was ejected from his ATV after it struck the culvert pipe on the trail, per the investigation, and he died at the scene.
As NEWS10 ABC reports, the investigation into the crash is ongoing. No further details about the circumstances of the crash have been released.
A Second Fatal Crash Struck the Same Town Hours Later
The ATV crash was not the only tragedy to hit Indian Lake that day. Two hours after troopers were first called to the Deer Valley Club trails, at 6:41 p.m., they responded to a head-on collision on State Route 28N, the same mynbc5.com report notes. Kathleen Henzler, 64, of Fishkill, was a passenger in a Hyundai involved in that crash and died at the scene.
How French's Death Fits a Larger Pattern
French's crash reflects patterns seen nationally in ATV fatalities. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 80 percent of ATV riders killed on public roads in 2024 died on rural roads, and 70 percent of those fatalities involved no other vehicle. The same data shows that 68 percent of single-vehicle ATV fatalities that year involved the vehicle rolling over, and only 7 percent of fatally injured riders were wearing helmets.
The institute's figures also show deaths among ATV riders on public roads have climbed sharply since 1982, with the share of fatally injured riders age 40 and older rising from 9 percent to 48 percent over that span. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission separately reported, per its own May 2024 release, that off-highway vehicle deaths had risen 33 percent according to its latest tally at the time, though the dossier does not tie that national figure to any specific New York trend.
Other Fatal ATV Crashes in the Region
Fatal ATV crashes have occurred elsewhere in New York in recent months. In September 2024, state police responded to an ATV accident in Adirondack Park in the town of Bellmont, according to the same state police agency's records.
In the Rochester area, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office investigated a fatal ATV crash in the Town of Parma that happened on a Wednesday night in a wooded area on private property, as reported by RochesterFirst. Deputies later identified the victim as 33-year-old Robert Bonfiglio of Parma and said investigators did not believe the crash had a criminal aspect, though that investigation also remained ongoing.
No further details about French's crash, including any contributing factors, have been released. New York State Police have not announced any additional findings beyond confirming the death and the ongoing status of the investigation.
