A 56-year-old Sacramento man died while rafting on the American River 50 miles north of Sacramento Saturday.David Wayne Johnson was rafting with two others when the vessel flipped over, according to
Cal Fire.
All three rafters were not wearing life jackets and were washed down
the river below the Iowa Hill Bridge. One victim swam to shore and a
woman was rescued shortly after the incident.
A dive team located and rescued the woman, and was forced
to suspend the search for Johnson due to "dangerous water levels
including class 4 rapids in this section of the river and pitch black
light conditions," Cal Fire reported.The California Highway Patrol, Cal Fire's
Nevada-Yuba-Placer unit, California State Parks, the Placer County
Sheriff and the Colfax Fire Department responded to the incident at
the Mineral Bar Campground.
A Sacramento man was found dead after three rafters fell into the
North Fork of the American River near Colfax on Saturday evening,
according to Cal Fire and the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
David Wayne Johnson, 56, was found Sunday by park
rangers and recovered by Placer County sheriff’s dive teams near Lake
Clementine, according to a news release by the sheriff’s office.
Crews with Cal Fire, the Placer County
Sheriff’s Office, Colfax Fire Department and other agencies responded
about 6 p.m. Saturday to a water rescue scene near the Mineral Bar
Campground, according to a news release by Cal Fire’s Nevada-Yuba-Placer
unit.
The three rafters, who were not wearing life
jackets, were “washed down river” beneath the Iowa Hill Bridge, the news
release said.
One person managed to make it to shore and called
911, Cal Fire said. The second victim became stranded about a half-mile
downstream, but was eventually located and rescued via California
Highway Patrol helicopter. That person was taken to an area hospital.
The search for the third victim, Johnson, had
been suspended after midnight Saturday due to dangerous rapids and
“pitch black light conditions,” according to Cal Fire’s news release.
BODY FOUND IN LAKE CLEMENTINE THE NEXT DAY
