A Deadly Mix For Boaters: Distractions, Alcohol And No Life Jacket

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On a warm, slightly overcast Sunday afternoon last August 8, boaters near the Salmon River boat launch on the Connecticut River in East Haddam noticed a personal watercraft drifting without a rider. Less than an hour later, state environmental police recovered a man’s body floating nearby in a no-wake zone. Stephen Fabian, 59, of Moodus, had fallen off the watercraft and drowned. State environmental officials said his life jacket was ill-fitting and had slid up around his head, and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) reported that his blood-alcohol level was well over the legal intoxication limit. “The way he died was tragic,” his best friend, Dana Pitts of Westbrook, said.

Boating Accidents
Investigators at crash site of the 2009 fatal boating accident in Long Island Sound.

Boating Deaths Linked To Alcohol Exceed U.S. Rate

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A C-HIT review of state and U.S. Coast Guard data has found that the number of Connecticut boating deaths involving alcohol increased nearly fourfold in the latter half of the last decade. The data shows that while there were six alcohol-related boating deaths in Connecticut from 2001 to 2005, that number jumped to 22 from 2006 to 2010.