One person killed, nine injured in boating accident near Water View
Millstone Landing at Water View served as the operations headquarters for the boating accident. Above is the State Police recovery van and search boat used in the recovery of the body of a 25-year-old Richmond-area woman. (Photo by Larry Chowning)
by Larry S. Chowning
A 25-year-old woman died and nine people were injured in a boating accident in the Rappahannock River near Water View in Middlesex County at about 10:15 p.m. Monday, July 5, according to John Bull, the director of public relations at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC).
According to published reports, all the injured were from the Richmond area.
Bull gave the following account of the fatal accident at a press conference at Millstone Landing in Water View Tuesday morning.
Steven Nixon, 38, of Montpelier in Hanover County was at the helm of his 2005 model 23-foot Chaparral sport-fishing boat with nine passengers, who were family members and friends, when the accident occurred. The fiberglass boat was traveling about 35 miles per hour when the bow crashed into the center of the steel, lighted No. 10 channel buoy in the Rappahannock River. The buoy is between Morattico on the Lancaster side of the river, and Water View on the Middlesex side.
The impact crushed the boat and threw several of those onboard into the river.
A passenger, Amanda Brady, died in the crash. Her body was recovered from the bottom of the river Tuesday morning by Coast Guard divers in 18 feet of water, just a few yards from where the accident occurred.
Steven Nixon suffered head injuries and his wife, Angela Nixon, 38, suffered leg injures.
Steven Nixon’s 11-year-old son, Zach, suffered the most serious injuries, including severe head trauma.
Chase Buchanon, 13, had a severe leg injury and Steven Nixon’s cousin, Chris Carnes, 29, was hospitalized for a head injury.
All five of the seriously injured were transported by either helicopter or by local rescue squads to the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.
Bailey Nixon, 10, and MacKenzie Buchanon, 11, were not as severely injured and were transported to Riverside Walter Reed Hospital in Gloucester.
Steven Nixon’s brother, Patrick, 26, and his sister Kelly, 43, were transported to Riverside Tappahannock Hospital.
Bull described the crash “as one of the worst boating accidents in the history of VMRC. No one I’ve talked with remembers one any worse.”
A Coast Guard official said the light on the No. 10 channel buoy flashed every 4 seconds to warn oncoming boaters.
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One person killed, nine injured in boating accident near Water View
