A late night ATV accident claimed the life of a young McKenzie man Saturday.
Addison Drake Pate, 21, was riding on an ATV with the driver when the accident occurred on Cherrywood Road in Carroll County at 11:15 p.m.
According to the report released by Tennessee Highway Patrol Lt. Jena Eubanks, Pate was a passenger on a 2021 CF Moto ATV driven by Gregory Curtis, 52, of McKenzie.
Curtis was injured and airflighted to an out of town hospital. According to the report, neither was wearing a seat belt.
The ATV was traveling across a ditch onto Cherrywood Road at the time. According to the report, the ATV overturned and came to a final rest on the passenger side on Cherrywood Road.
Drake’s father, Joel Pate, a deputy with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department, said his son had been at the residence of his mother and stepfather, Tammy and Kenny Trevathan, all day preparing for a rodeo that had just concluded.
He was about to leave when he was invited to get in the passenger seat of the ATV to check it out. The ATV immediately crashed after he got on, said his father.
“Drake had his boat hooked up and was ready to head to my lake house where I was waiting and we were going to go night fishing,” said his father.
Pate was a volunteer firefighter with the McKenzie Fire & Rescue and had just graduated from lineman school.
The body has been sent for an autopsy with arrangements incomplete at press time Monday.
