Boating and alcohol a dangerous combination, officials say

CHESAPEAKE

The red and white Baja sports boat carrying two friends was cruising toward Great Bridge Lock Park on Saturday night when it crashed into a lighted channel marker jutting like a telephone pole some 12 feet above the surface of the Elizabeth River.

The vessel's windshield and mounting post hit the passenger with so much force he died at the scene.

Officials say the boat's operator was drunk. They don't know how fast he was going.

Eighty-nine people have died in boating accidents in Virginia since 2003, according to the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Fourteen of those deaths were alcohol-related, and most were drownings, said spokeswoman Julia Dixon.

One of the most recent cases involving a collision Dixon could recall occurred in August 2005 on Smith Mountain Lake in Bedford County.

According to news reports at that time, Mark de Tournillon Sr. pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter by intoxication after the boat he was driving crashed into another, killing a couple and their dog.

Few are as dramatic.

"It's really not a common occurrence," Dixon said.

Marshall Crosby, a police sergeant for the department, said injuries are more typical.

According to state law, anyone driving a boat with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher is considered under the influence - the same as in vehicles.

Anyone convicted could face a $2,500 fine and a year in jail, Dixon said. They could also lose the right to boat for three years.

The U.S. Coast Guard reports that alcohol contributed to 145 of 685 boating deaths nationwide in 2007 - more than any other single factor.

"Wind, sun, glare, motion, noise, it's proven those stressors can create a fatigue" that mixes dangerously with alcohol, Dixon said.

Kurt Jon Riffey, 44, of the 300 block of Benefit Road in Chesapeake, was driving the 27-foot Baja boat outside of the channel just north of the Gilmerton Bridge around

10:30 p.m. Saturday, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries reported.

Boaters are supposed to stay within the channel, which has markers attached with red strobe lights, Crosby said.

Riffey was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Bobby Ray Ussery, 46, of Virginia Beach.

Riffey was also charged with operating a boat while under the influence and refusing a breath test.

He was taken to the Chesapeake City Jail, where he was released on an $11,000 bond, said Sgt. David Rosado of the sheriff's office.

Riffey is scheduled for arraignment in Chesapeake General District Court on Wednesday morning.

Investigators worked to reconstruct the accident scene Monday afternoon, Crosby said.

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com