A 61-year-old Woodland Park man was killed Thursday on a guided rafting trip when he and two other customers were flung into the Arkansas River.
The man’s name has not been released. The Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office said two other customers and a professional guide from Rocky Mountain Outdoor Center were thrown into the river when their raft hit a bridge at F Street in Salida at about 1:30 p.m.
The others climbed to shore, but the man who died was swept more than a mile downstream before recuers could reach him, according to the sheriff’s department.
He was rushed to Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center in Salida where he died.The fatality was the second in as many days in Chaffee County. A 67-year-old man died in the Arkansas River in a rafting accident near Buena Vista on Tuesday.
Oscar Stevenson III of Eastville, Va., was thrown from his raft at Pinball Rapids.
Others on the rafting trip pulled him to shore, but he died, possibly from a heart attack, Sheriff Tim Walker said.
