Posted: Monday, July 4, 2016 4:39 pm
Paul J. Goetz, Mountain Mail managing editor
Sandra Johnson, 51 of Littleton, died Sunday, July 3, following a rafting incident on the Arkansas River. Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze said that the county communications center received a call at 12:30 p.m. of a woman falling from a raft in the Browns Canyon area. Emergency crews responded and found that a River Runners raft was in the Zoom Flume rapid area about 15 miles north of Salida when it hit a rock and Johnson was thrown from the vessel. She was pulled to safety and CPR was started. Efforts to revive her were unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Chaffee County Search and Rescue took her from the scene. This is the first rafting fatality in Chaffee County this year. Agencies assisting in this operation were the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Chaffee County EMS and Chaffee County Search and Rescue.
