Six people in a rented raft missed three warning signs that there was “danger beyond this point” after they missed a turn in the river and subsequently went over a waterfall Saturday in Ohiopyle State Park in Pennsylvania.
Cody Veronie captured video of the mishap and posted it on Facebook, writing, “This wasn’t supposed to happen and wasn’t part of the guided trip. We watched all the rafters go over and stood there waiting to see if everyone came out. We couldn’t tell from where the video is, so we went over to the visitor’s center and everyone was coming up. We asked and thankfully everyone was okay and came out alive.”
Frightened observers witnessing the incident from a platform alongside the falls immediately called 911 for help after the raft flipped, sending its occupants swimming, as reported by ABC News and WTAE Pittsbrugh.
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“We fortunately got all six of them fairly quickly,” Kenneth Bisbee, park operations manager at Ohiopyle State Park, told WTAE. “The great thing about it is, just like wearing a seat belt in your car, how important that is, all six of them had their life jackets on. So when they went over the falls, that was probably the thing that saved them, and that’s why they’re with us today.”
The rafters were shaken but suffered only scrapes and bruises.
“They really didn’t do anything wrong other than missing the signs,” Bisbee told WTAE. “And, like I said, there’s three different sets of signs that they would have missed. Other than that, they did everything right.”
