Victims identified in last week’s fatal rafting incident on Nooksack River
A 55-year-old California man and his 10-year-old son were identified as the victims who died in last week’s fatal rafting incident on the Nooksack River.
John Coleman of Berkeley, California, and his son died when they were swept downriver after a raft overturned on the North Fork of the Nooksack River Tuesday, June 14, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
The son’s name was not released by the sheriff’s office, nor was the name of anyone else in the raft at the time of the incident.
At approximately 3 p.m. Tuesday, the sheriff’s office was notified that a commercially operated river raft with four customers and a guide flipped at a rapid near the Snowline neighborhood of Glacier, a sheriff’s office release last week stated.
While one of the bodies was located shortly after the incident approximately a half-mile downstream from where the raft flipped, the other was not found until approximately 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, June 15, according to the release.
The guide aided in the rescue the of two female customers, according to the release, but Coleman and his son were swept downstream.
The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office dispatched Summit to Sound swift water rescue technicians along with K9 and drone teams to search the area, according to the release. Border Patrol, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) also responded, along with a CBP helicopter, arriving at approximately 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday’s fatality was the first on the Nooksack River involving a commercial rafting company in approximately 20 years, Triad River Tours Executive Director Luke Baugh told The Bellingham Herald Friday, June 17, and it was the first on a river in the Puget Sound region in Western Washington since Memorial Day weekend 2013 on the Skykomish River.
Bellingham-based Triad River Tours, which Baugh said was not involved in last week’s incident, has had employees make protocol scouting runs on the Nooksack this spring, checking conditions out, but it has not begun commercial rafting runs on the river in 2022.
This story was originally published June 21, 2022 at 1:13 PM.
