SHELDON, Vt. (AP) – Two teenagers trying to elude a state trooper on an all-terrain vehicle hit a bridge’s guardrail and flew over it to their deaths, police said.

The bodies of Ryan Forty, 17, the driver of the ATV, and Brandon Rainville, 18, were found by one of Forty’s family members on Saturday afternoon near the Shawville Road Bridge, said a statement from the Vermont State Police.

The statement said the incident began at 10:30 p.m. Friday, when State Police Sgt. Kirk Cooper saw the pair riding an ATV near the junction of Vermont Route 105 and Sweethollow Road.

The two teens, who were from the nearby town of Franklin, fled when the saw the officer and headed north on Shawville Road, causing cars to pull over and stop to avoid colliding with them, police said.

Cooper pursued the teenagers and found the ATV abandoned in the middle of the Shawville Road Bridge, still running. Cooper was unable to find the young men.

Saturday afternoon, Forty’s mother called State Police and said her son was missing.

“While the details were still coming in,” the police report said, “we learned of the discovery of the two male deceased bodies near the Shawville Road Bridge in Sheldon by a family member of Forty.”

An investigation determined that the two hit a guard rail, were thrown over it and “landed below to the west side of the bridge, near the Missisquoi River,” the police report said.

AP-ES-07-18-04 0846EDT