March 23, 2009
DERRY – Even though the action was unfolding right before Lori Fuccione's eyes, she couldn't believe it when she looked up from raking her lawn to see two four-wheelers veer off the trail and cut across partially frozen Ezekiel Pond yesterday.
Emphasis on the "partially frozen" part.
"It's been 40 degrees for two weeks now. What were they thinking?" said Fuccione, who was getting some yard work done at about 2 p.m. on Windham Depot Road when she saw two riders drop into the icy drink.
Fuccione said things could have been a lot worse -- especially for rescuers -- because there were about 10 riders on off-road vehicles who had come up the trail together from Windham.
"It's a good thing the rest of them hung back while the first two went out there or else they all would've gone under," Fuccione said. "Some of them even had little kids riding on the back. It was scary."
Derry Fire Battalion Chief Michael Doyle was one of the first to reach the pond after one of the riders in the group called for help using a cell phone.
The two men, Richard Eicchorn, 39, and Stephen Sharpe, 35, both of Salem, were in the pond about 300 yards from the shore when fire crews arrived.
"There was a gaggle of guys out riding, and two of them took a right off the trail, across the pond. They got about three-quarters of the way across, when they broke through," Doyle said. "Bad idea."
Fuccione's next-door neighbor, Jim Hoefle, said riders need to use some common sense when the weather starts to turn.
"It's spring. It's just too warm now -- we've had some 60-degree days. Who would think this was a good idea?" Hoefle said.
Doyle said Eichhorn was in the water up to his chest while Sharpe was standing on his submerged four-wheeler. Eichhorn was taken to Parkland Medical Center, where he was treated and released. Sharpe refused treatment, Doyle said.
"You can see the vehicle sticking up from the pond there," Doyle said, pointing across the pond to where the outline of a bike could be seen jutting up from the slushy water.
Police said the state Department of Fish & Game would continue the investigation today, and try to go back and retrieve the bike.
Fuccione said the stretch of Rockingham Trail that leads to Derry, where the riders came from, is supposed to be closed to off-road vehicles.
"And they aren't supposed to go off trail when there's no snow," Fuccione said.
"We like having the trail," said Hoefle, nodding toward his own four-wheeler parked at the top of his driveway. "We don't want them to shut it down or anything. People just can't be that dumb, to go out when it's not safe."