Amazing Facts

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

US tourist drowns in rafting accident

New Zealand police say an American woman has died after becoming pinned under a rock during a family rafting trip on the Mohaka River in New Zealand's North Island.
Senior Sgt. Stuart Fleming says U.S. national Caroline Lackey, 59, from Kentucky, was rafting with her husband, son and daughter-in-law when they all fell out of the raft.

He says while the three other family members were carried downstream and managed to scramble ashore, Lackey became pinned under a rock and was believed to have drowned.

"It was a recreational rafting trip, a family one, and there were no commercial operators involved," he said Monday.

The woman's body was recovered by a rescue helicopter and taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital for an autopsy.