PUEBLO — An Aurora man and his son died in a Father’s Day rafting accident on the Arkansas River near Pueblo, officials said.
The Pueblo County Coroner’s Office identified the two victims as 46-year-old Ricardo Valencia Sanchez and 16-year-old Jose Louis Valencia.
They were ejected from the raft on Sunday, police officials said. Strong currents near a dam forced them underwater for several minutes and they became entangled in a rope.
Emergency responders pulled the raft to shore about a mile downstream. They died at the scene and both were wearing life jackets.
A third person in the raft survived.