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By CASEY RYAN VOCK
DANNEMORA — State Police investigators say that Everett J. Willis died last Friday night when he fell off the snowmobile he was driving and was struck by another one.
Willis, 41, of Brainardsville was driving a 2006 Polaris snowmobile on Upper Chateaugay Lake sometime before 10:24 p.m. when he fell from the vehicle and was struck by a 2001 Arctic Cat driven by Todd M. Harrigan, 41, of Chateaugay, State Police said Monday.
During the investigation, Harrigan refused to consent to a blood analysis, State Police said, and a warrant was issued for the sample.
The results of the blood analysis were pending Monday night, and no charges had been filed in connection with the accident.
An autopsy conducted Monday at CVPH Medical Center in Plattsburgh by Dr. Eric Gorman revealed Willis's cause of death to be blunt force trauma due to the snowmobile accident.
Clinton County Coroner David Donah has not ruled on the manner of death, pending further investigation by the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Troop B Collision Reconstruction Unit.
The investigation resulted in the arrest of a third Franklin County man, Roger J. Wilcox, 43, of Brainardsville, on charges of operating a snowmobile while intoxicated.
State Police say Wilcox was not involved in the actual accident.
"He was part of the same group of snowmobiles," said Capt. Robert LaFountain of the Bureau of Criminal Investigations.
"During the course of the investigation, (Wilcox) was found to be in violation of the law."
LaFountain did not reveal the number of snowmobiles that were traveling in the area when the accident occurred.
"This is a fairly in-depth investigation, and it will be taking some time."
The investigation was continuing, with the assistance of the Clinton County District Attorney's Office.
Anyone with additional information on the accident is asked to call State Police in Plattsburgh at 563-3761.
