There was a commercial rafting accident on the Gauley on September 26th, during Gauleyfest Weekend. The fatality was covered in Splashes, the newsletter of the West Virginia Wildwater Association. Glen Rogers, 50, fell out of his raft during a run through Class V Iron Ring Falls on West Virginia’s Upper Gauley, Although he was pulled from the water promptly he soon became unresponsive. Guides started CPR, radioed for help, then rafted him downriver one mile to an access road where an ambulance waited. Mr. Rogers was taken to Summersville Hospital where he died that evening. The medical examiner found that the cause of his death was “blunt force trauma to the head”, an unusual event for rafters even on a slam-bang run like the Upper Gauley. Events like this remind us that a few extra bucks for a good quality helmet is a good investment.
