This past weekend was deadly for people using Colorado’s swollen rivers.
A 29-year-old woman from Santa Fe died Sunday afternoon in the Poudre River after a tubing accident. Christine Beltran was pulled from the river, where she had been riding an inner tube with a group, around 4:30 p.m. and was pronounced dead at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins.
The Larimer County Dive Rescue Team, Larimer County Sheriff’s Office and Poudre Fire Authority responded at 1:54 p.m. to a report of five to six people falling into the river, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Eloise Campanella said. The other tubers were able to escape the water near Overland Trail and Taft Hill Road.
In Gunnison County, sheriff’s officers reported that Dr. Michael Dennington, an ear, nose and throat specialist in Parker and Aurora, died Saturday afternoon after his raft hit an island in the Gunnison River and overturned. A woman and two children survived the accident, but all suffered from hypothermia and other minor injuries.
