Friends say Everett City Councilman Drew Nielsen died Saturday in a rafting accident on the Green River.

A friend who witnessed the accident, Irv Wiswall of McMinnville, Ore., told The Daily Herald ( http://is.gd/rN5mLu) Nielsen was pinned by his raft when it caught against a rock and went sidewise. His wife was briefly trapped under the raft and made her way out.

The current was so strong it pulled off Nielsen's life vest. Rescue crews recovered his body.

Nielsen was a lawyer who had been a member of the Everett City Council since 2004.

Friends described him as an expert rafter who had floated down the same stretch of the Green River the previous weekend.

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Information from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldnet.com