Mass. Man Dies During Rafting Trip In West Forks

A man from Massachusetts died during a whitewater rafting trip in Somerset County on Saturday, said Cpl. John MacDonald of the Maine Warden Service.

Michael Arena, 52, of Lexington, Massachusetts, was chaperoning a group of boy scouts, including his son, during a rafting trip led by North Country Rivers of Bingham.

Arena fell from his group's raft as they made their way through a series of whitewater rapids in West Forks, MacDonald said.

The Upper Kennebec Valley Ambulance service responded, and Arena was pronounced dead on the scene. A cause of death has yet to be determined.

Game wardens say the raft was being operated in accordance with state law, and fatal accidents involving Maine's whitewater rafting industry are extremely rare.

MacDonald said nearly 70,000 people commercially raft Maine’s rivers each year, and this was the first deadly accident in quite some time.

Correction:
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Arena drowned. The Maine Warden Service has said a cause of death has yet to be determined.