Ohio man dies in raft accident

The holiday weekend in Grand County kept sheriff's deputies and search and rescue personnel busy.

An Ohio man was killed Monday while rafting on the Colorado River in Westwater Canyon.

A group of rafters were going through Skull Rapids about 3:30 p.m. when one raft carrying three people and a dog flipped, said chief deputy Curt Brewer.

The other rafters were able to reach two of the people and the dog quickly. It took about 20 minutes to catch up to the third man, Brewer said. When rescuers finally pulled him out, Dennis Young, 57, of Columbus, Ohio, was unresponsive. Young was wearing a helmet and life jacket, but crews were unable to revive him after doing CPR for about 20 minutes, he said.

The rafts were unable to get out of the water until they reached Cisco about an hour later, Brewer said. At that time, the sheriff's office was notified of the accident.

Westwater Canyon is a popular white-water rafting area and the river is typically high this time of year, generating large rapids, Brewer said.

"When you get high water like this, the danger gets a little more extreme," he said. "We get a lot of flipped boats."

But there are relatively few drownings in the area, averaging only one or two per year, Brewer said.

In a separate incident on Saturday, a vehicle plummeted 12 feet from narrow Onion Creek Road to the creek bed below when the driver lost control for unknown reasons, possibly because the vehicle was traveling too fast for conditions, Brewer said. Two Orem residents, both 28, were in the vehicle during the 10 p.m. incident. The female passenger was taken to Allen Memorial Hospital to be treated for minor injuries to her hip.

Heavy rains also created several problems around Moab on Friday. About 40 to 50 people became stuck in an area of Gray's Canyon known as Swayze's Beach near the Green River. A narrow pass made of clay became impassable, stranding the group in the canyon. The group had food and supplies but was stuck for two days before a road crew was brought in to fix the problem, according to the sheriff's office.

As of Tuesday, four or five trailers still couldn't pass over that section of road and were still stranded.

Also near the Green River over the weekend, the bank gave way on a man riding a horse. He was able to swim to shore, but the horse drowned, according to the sheriff's office.

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