BUCKFIELD – A Wiscasset snowmobiler escaped serious injury on Thursday afternoon despite being pinned for more than 30 minutes in a few inches of icy water underneath his sled in a Buckfield drainage ditch.

At about 3:30 p.m., Buckfield Rescue and PACE Ambulance crew members pulled Alan Cheney, 66, out from under the sled at the base of a culvert at 50 South Hill Road.

Then, he stood and, with their assistance, was helped through deep snow up to the road and into an ambulance to get warm and be evaluated.

Maine Warden Anthony Gray said at the scene that Cheney was lucky that he wasn’t seriously injured.

“He’s doing fine. He’s just a little bit cold,” Gray said.

The warden said Cheney had driven up from Wiscasset earlier in the day and parked his truck at Youly’s Restaurant in Turner.

Then, he headed out for a day of snowmobiling on his Arctic Cat T660.

Cheney said he came off a snowmobile trail onto South Hill Road, crossed it and didn’t bear right far enough.

“He wasn’t at the right angle when he hit the pavement and sleds don’t turn well on pavement,” Gray said.

The sled veered off the trail into deep powder atop a culvert, then rolled Cheney off, dropping him about five feet. Cheney landed in the water on his back either on or beside a granite stone, then the sled landed upside down atop him.

“It happened real quick,” Cheney said.

Unable to extricate himself, Cheney called 911 on his cell phone, a call that was answered by Maine State Police dispatchers in Gray. He explained his predicament, but, unfamiliar with the area, couldn’t give an accurate location.

A state police dispatcher said Thursday afternoon that when they triangulated the cell phone using GPS mapping, it revealed Cheney was in a brook in Hebron near 672 Station Road.

State police contacted Oxford County dispatchers who, at 3:05 p.m., then sent Hebron firefighters, two PACE ambulances, and Paris firefighters to the scene. Responders were told that Cheney could be seen in the brook from Station Road.

However, when they arrived and began searching a snowmobile trail in the area, there was no brook and no Cheney.

At about 3:20 p.m., Derek Galway of Buckfield was driving along South Hill Road, spotted the overturned sled and turned around to investigate. He said he thought someone had rolled it and left to get help to retrieve it.

“I pulled into the driveway and got out to look and he yelled out, ‘Help! I’m down here!'” Galway said. “I was shocked. My initial thought was that someone had crashed their snowmobile and left. I didn’t think someone would still be underneath it.”

Galway said Cheney told him what happened and that he’d been pinned in the water for 30 minutes.

He said he could hear Cheney talking with 911 dispatchers, but Cheney didn’t know where he was. So, Galway took the phone and gave dispatchers the location. A registered nurse also stopped to help.

Dispatchers then radioed to bewildered emergency responders in Hebron that the accident was actually at 50 North Hill Road in Buckfield, a few miles away. Seconds later, that address was changed to 50 South Hill Road, then back again.

However, the PACE ambulances continued on as Buckfield Rescue and Buckfield firefighters were being dispatched, and both quickly found the accident scene.

Firefighters righted the sled and parked it in the driveway, then one of them took Cheney to get his truck.