Swimmer dies in ‘deceiving’ river during family rafting trip, New York officials say
.jpg "A swimmer died at the Upper Delaware River during a family rafting trip on Aug. 27, officials said.")
A swimmer died on a family rafting trip after the person was swept underwater and couldn’t be rescued, officials said.
A family from Ozone Park, New York, planned to take a rafting trip in the Upper Delaware River on Saturday, Aug. 27, the National Park Service said. During the trip, two family members went for a swim in the river.
“The individuals were observed in distress,” park officials said in an Aug. 28 news release. “While one individual was rescued the second was observed to go under the water.”
Park rangers rushed to the scene to help the swimmers. When they arrived, one of them was already dead.
Neither swimmer was wearing a life jacket at the time, park officials said.
The drowning was the first in the park this year, according to the National Park Service. Officials said the river can be misleading to swimmers.
“High summer temperatures draw people to go into the river to cool off, but the river can be deceiving with swift river currents just beneath the surface and sudden steep drop offs that can cause even the strongest swimmer to panic leading to tragic consequences,” officials said.
Park officials said anyone who enters the river should wear a life jacket that fits correctly. None of the drowning victims in the park since 1980 had a life jacket on at the time of their death.
The Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River runs 73 miles along the New York-Pennsylvania border.
This story was originally published August 29, 2022 at 2:02 PM with the headline "Swimmer dies in ‘deceiving’ river during family rafting trip, New York officials say."