State College Man Drowns After Kayaking Accident in Southwestern Pa.

A State College man died by drowning while kayaking on Friday at a state park in southwestern Pennsylvania, according to the Fayette County Coroner’s Office.

Michael Barney, 43, was an experienced boater who was kayaking with friends in the lower Youghiogheny River at Ohiopyle State Park when he became stuck in a rapid, Coroner Bob Baker wrote on Facebook.

Barney’s friends, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources staff and Fayette EMS, “worked tirelessly to save his life,” Baker wrote. The coroner’s office was dispatched at 7:19 p.m., and Barney was pronounced dead at the scene.

After an investigation, Baker ruled the cause of death as drowning and the manner as accidental.