Boy Scout Dies in River Rafting Accident

A 15-year-old Boy Scout died after falling off a raft into the Animas River and being swept away by the strong current, a Scouting leader said. A second raft overturned, but no one was seriously hurt.

“I don’t know whether the raft hit a hole, a snag or what, but the bottom line is he wound up in the water,” according to Jan Gimar, a senior district executive for the Boy Scouts of America Great Southwest Council in Farmington, in the state’s northwest.

The boy’s identity was not immediately released. Gimar said the expedition’s leader told him the river was moving rapidly and the current pulled off the boy’s life jacket.