Boater admits to consuming alcohol before crash

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, July 6, VMRC marine police officers inspect the crushed 23-foot fiberglass Chaparral bow-rider at Millstone Landing in Water View. (Photo by George Longest, chief of the Upper Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department)

by Larry S. Chowning

Steven Wayne Nixon, the driver of the boat that crashed into a channel marker on July 5 in the Rappahannock River, admitted to Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) officers that he was drinking alcoholic beverages “intermittently” throughout the day of the crash, according to a search warrant filed in Gloucester County Circuit Court.

VMRC marine police officer J.H. Richardson filed the warrant, which seeks the alcohol level results of a blood sample taken from Nixon at Riverside Walter Reed in Gloucester County within hours following the boat accident.

The boat struck channel marker 10R head on. Aerial photo courtesy of Cloud 9 Photography (Deagle-Kucera).

The search warrant states that Steven Nixon has admitted to driving the “vessel that struck the steel stanchions of the No. 10 channel marker, resulting in one fatality and numerous injuries to the other passengers.”

The crash resulted in the death of 25-year-old Amanda Brady of Glen Allen and serious injuries to the other nine people aboard the 23-foot fiberglass Chaparral, which struck the channel marker at about 10:30 p.m. on July 5.

The warrant states, “The adult passengers of the vessel, Angela Nixon, Patrick Nixon and Kelly Nixon, stated that Steve Nixon was operating the vessel at the time of the accident and he had been consuming alcohol prior to the offense.”

Also, according to the warrant, “Steve Nixon stated that he had been consuming alcohol intermittently throughout the day.”

The warrant states that both Coast Guard Chief Gonzales and Marine Police Officer Richardson observed Steven Nixon sitting injured in the driver’s seat of the boat and there was a “strong odor of alcohol with beer cans strewn about the deck.”

The search warrant was filed by Officer Richardson and certified to the Clerk of Gloucester County Circuit Court because Nixon’s blood sample was taken at Riverside Walter Reed in Gloucester County.

The search warrant was executed at 10:18 a.m. on July 8.

VMRC spokesperson John Bull said the results from the blood tests are expected to take several weeks.

posted 07.10.2010

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