# Raft Guide Charged With Criminally Negligent Homicide



## BoscoBoater (Jul 11, 2006)

Wow... on a normal low flow release.. 

The rafting companies usually group up on the Hudson, especially on the Indian. 



Police: Woman drowned during Hudson River rafting trip, guide charged

NY police: Adirondack river rafting guide intoxicated when Ohio woman drowned during outing

Police: Adirondacks raft guide drunk when woman drowned - Utica, NY - The Observer-Dispatch, Utica, New York


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## BoscoBoater (Jul 11, 2006)

A good article on the whole Hudson River Rafting Company saga...

Hudson River Rafting: Pat Cunningham


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## lmyers (Jun 10, 2008)

Interesting article. 

In one respect it seems like the authorities are treating him unfairly, talking about unhappy customers and a restitution fund?!, but at the same time running buses with unlicensed drivers and having guides floating customers before they finish training is unacceptable.

I think this statement says a lot about the attitude New York has towards rafting:

"The association contracts with the town of Indian Lake for water releases and to launch boats below the Lake Abanakee dam. When Pat Cunningham left the group, he lost those launching rights. His company hitches a free ride on the surge of water by putting in from a piece of riverbank he owns nearby."

Like he is a criminal for launching from his own land on a public waterway.


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## Jensjustduckie (Jun 29, 2007)

lmyers said:


> Like he is a criminal for launching from his own land on a public waterway.



Of course, he's not paying the county or whoever owns the normal launch so he's obviously a criminal ripping off the gov't. 

I read another article that said he was drunk when driving his customers to their destination too. Wish I had bookmarked it.


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## BoscoBoater (Jul 11, 2006)

lmyers said:


> Like he is a criminal for launching from his own land on a public waterway.


As far as that goes, I don't think they see him so much as a criminal for that, then as a leech on the rest of the local rafting business community. The truth is there would be no scheduled summer releases on the Hudson with out the raft company's association paying for them. The release is free and available for any member of the public to use for recreation. What he did was stop paying his fair share to the association (a group that he was also a founding member of) for the profit making trips he was running on the the releases that the group had arranged and paid for.


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## Snowhere (Feb 21, 2008)

Not to mention he was guiding a trip and jumped out 3 miles upstream from the takout. Then he told his customers to paddle on with out him! 
It may have only been class I-II at that point, but what 'pro' guide abandons their customers before the end of a trip?


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## PattyNYCO (Mar 21, 2005)

This is 10 miles from my hometown. Pat, amoung others, taught me how to be a raft guide in my late teens and 20's. There is a lot more to these stories than what is being posted here. He is being slaughtered in the press right now and these stories do not say anything of the other side. He is still a local hero to many folks in the Adirondacks. He has dedicated his life to the water and mountains and his businesses are now basically ruined. . Please try not to judge without knowing the whole story. His family is going through enough right now.


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## natepelton (Feb 24, 2011)

*The Bulletproof Monk*

Hamilton County Express


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