NEW SHARON – A New Sharon man was at a Lewiston hospital Tuesday night with injuries to his arm after it was pinned under a tractor roll bar for more than three hours.

James Curtiss, 53, of Lane Road was scheduled for surgery, but a report on his condition was not available late Tuesday night, Maine State Trooper Aaron Turcotte said.

The accident happened about 1 p.m. Tuesday while Curtiss was hauling some brush to the edge of his yard, the trooper said. “He just got the front wheels too far to the edge of the embankment and the weight shifted,” sending the Kabota tractor with a bucket down the embankment.

“He had been continuously yelling for help,” until Turcotte found him about 4:15 p.m., the trooper said.

A Starks Road resident heard the yells and reported them to police about 3:30 p.m., Turcotte said.

Troopers Scott Dalton and Matt Casavant were sent with Turcotte to find Curtiss, and Turcotte ended up running about 2 miles through the woods from Lane Road toward the Sandy River to within about a couple hundred yards from the river. He eventually found Curtiss and his tractor about 20 feet down a very steep, 100-foot embankment behind his house, he said.

The tractor had landed against a tree with Curtiss’ left arm pinned under the roll bar, Turcotte said.

“He had been there for a while. He was fighting and conscious and alert,” Turcotte said, adding that Curtiss told him the accident happened about 1 p.m.

“His arm had been pinned under there for three hours,” he said, causing a crushing injury.

State troopers and firefighters from New Sharon, Farmington, NorthStar Emergency Medical Services medics and Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies converged on the scene and secured the tractor so it wouldn’t move then lifted the roll bar off Curtiss’ arm, Turcotte said. He was pulled free and put on a lift basket and brought up the embankment where medics stabilized him before moving him to a nearby field where a helicopter landed to fly him to Lewiston, Turcotte said.

Farmington fire rescue deputy Chief Tim Hardy praised those in the successful rescue.

“I thought it was an excellent team effort between troopers of the Maine State Police, New Sharon Fire Rescue, Farmington Fire Rescue, NorthStar ambulance, LifeFlight helicopter and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department,” Hardy said. “It took quite an effort to free him from under the tractor on the steep embankment.”

A nursing supervisor said Tuesday night that she could not release information on Curtiss.