The death of a man on a guided rafting trip Sunday on the Ocoee River appears to be the first fatal accident of a customer in more than 15 years.
“This is very rare,” Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency spokesman Dan Hicks said Sunday. He said the agency has never handled a raft-related fatality on the Ocoee in the 16 years he’s been working there.
“I’ve been on those trips and always considered it pretty safe,” he said.
The 36-year-old Arlington, Tenn., man was on an Ocoee Outdoors raft with five other people and a guide when the craft flipped in the rapids near the Ocoee Whitewater Center, Hicks said.
The other riders were occupied with struggling to re-board the raft, Hicks said