One killed, nine injured in Rappahannock River boating accident

Authorities are investigating alcohol as a factor in the high-speed crash of a boat operated by a Richmond fire captain that claimed one life and left nine people injured, two critically.

All 10 people aboard the boat involved in the crash late Monday night on the Rappahannock River were from suburban Richmond, including Amanda Brady, 25, of Glen Allen, a Henrico County teacher.

Brady's body was recovered from the river yesterday morning within several yards of the crash scene about a half-mile offshore from the Middlesex County community of Water View.

One of the survivors, Patrick Nixon, listed Brady as his fiancée on his Facebook page.

"It was definitely the worst boating accident I've seen in my 17 years with the U.S. Coast Guard," said Maritime Enforcement Specialist Chief Richard Gonzalez, one of the first responders to set foot on the damaged vessel.

Gonzalez encountered a horrible scene. Soft moans bit through the moonless night sky; the flat, dark Rappahannock River eased by a boat filled with injured people and held in place by a passenger clinging to the fixed channel marker, a 12-foot-high tripod of steel beams the vessel had hit.

"There was shattered glass everywhere and fiberglass. An 11-year-old boy was in the bow area, unresponsive," Gonzalez said.

The navigational aid the boat struck, positioned on the edge of a channel reaching depths of 60 feet and affixed with a beacon, bathed the scene in red light, a 1-second flash every 2.5 seconds.

"Alcohol was apparently a factor," said John M.R. Bull, a spokesman for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. "There were beer cans in the boat and around the accident scene as well."

The boat was owned and being operated by Steven Nixon, 38, of Montpelier, a Richmond firefighter, Bull said.

Brady, without a life jacket to buoy her, was found yesterday by Virginia State Police divers. She was the only person initially unaccounted for.

The crash occurred 23 miles upriver from Windmill Point in Lancaster County, where occupants of the boat had gathered earlier in the evening at Charlie's Tiki Bar, restaurant owner Charlie Francis said. "They seemed like a normal family, just having a good time."

Francis said tabs from the group showed very little alcohol was consumed, and he said videos show the group playing a bean bag-tossing game and just having fun.

"They left at 8 p.m.," hours before the accident, he said. No one appeared intoxicated, Francis said.

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But investigators with the VMRC reported that empty beer cans were found on the boat, which they believe was traveling as much as 35 mph on impact, based on a tachometer that froze on impact.

"It was like a knife cutting through butter," said Bull, describing how the fixed channel marker escaped undamaged while the boat's bow was shattered by the impact.

Amanda Brady and 11-year-old Zach Nixon were sitting forward near the bow, Gonzalez said.

It was not clear yesterday if the 22-foot, 2005 yellow Chaparral was considered overloaded when it crashed, according to the Coast Guard.

Two juveniles had been let off the boat at Grey's Point Campground in Middlesex before it proceeded farther upriver to the crash site, Bull said.

Bull called the reaction to the accident "an all-hands-on-deck response," bringing out dozens of Middlesex and Gloucester County rescue-squad volunteers, VMRC investigators, agents of the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and Coast Guard auxiliary volunteers who were some of the first people to arrive.

He said responders included a Coast Guard helicopter from Elizabeth City, N.C., which was instrumental in transporting the 11-year-old boy, the first to be taken ashore, and other victims.

A landing area was created near a rescue-squad building at Water View, where all victims were triaged and transported to hospitals in Richmond, Tappahannock and Gloucester.

Rescue workers stayed at the scene until 2:30 a.m., said Walter Revere, a 38-year veteran of the Middlesex squad.

Francis, the restaurant owner, was stunned by the estimated speed of the boat and wondered if there had been a malfunction.

"I wouldn't travel that fast, especially in the pitch black of night," he said. The flashing channel marker can be seen for miles.

The boat apparently was returning to a campground in Lancaster, authorities said.

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Richmond fire Lt. Shawn L. Jones, a department spokesman, confirmed that Steven Nixon is a captain with the department and is assigned to Station 23 on LaBrook Concourse in South Richmond, off Midlothian Turnpike.

"We are family. . . . We're going to be there for him and his family," Jones said. "Right now, we're really not saying much of anything."

Bull said authorities were seeking a warrant to obtain the results of blood tests conducted on Nixon at VCU Medical Center.

The VMRC, which is leading the crash investigation, has impounded the mangled wreckage of the boat and taken it to its headquarters in Newport News.

Bull said there is no timetable for the VMRC to complete its investigation, the results of which will be turned over to prosecutors in Middlesex for their consideration.

Brady was a fifth-grade teacher at R.C. Longan Elementary School in Henrico. Schools Superintendent Patrick Russo issued a statement last night that praised her dedication and service to students. "Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and loved ones," Russo said.

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Gonzalez said last night that the Coast Guard was notified of the crash by the Middlesex Sheriff's Office at 9:50 p.m. The 911 call to the Sheriff's Office apparently was made by Steven Nixon from a cell phone, despite Nixon's severe facial injuries.

He was one of five victims taken to VCU Medical Center. Two more were flown to Riverside Walter Reed Hospital in Gloucester, Bull said, and two were taken to Riverside Tappahannock Hospital after the crash.

The injuries of the nine taken to hospitals ranged from massive head trauma and significant leg injuries to facial lacerations and broken bones, Bull said. Their ages ranged from 10 to 43.

Bull identified the critically injured as Angela Nixon, 38, Steven Nixon's wife, who had severe leg injuries; and Zach Nixon, 11, Steven Nixon's son, who had severe head injuries.

A VCU spokeswoman said yesterday that Steven Nixon was discharged from the facility and that Angela Nixon was in fair condition.

She said she was not permitted by family to release information about Zach Nixon or Chris Carnes, 29, a cousin of Steven Nixon's.

The spokeswoman said she had no information on a 13-year-old boy who reportedly was transported to VCU with a leg injury. The boy, Chase Buchanan of Beaverdam, is Steven Nixon's stepson, Bull said.

A Riverside Health System spokesman said yesterday that Patrick Nixon and Kelly Nixon were treated at Riverside Tappahannock Hospital and released. Bull said Patrick Nixon, 26, and Kelly Nixon, 43, both of Glen Allen, are Steven Nixon's brother and sister.

The Riverside spokesman had no information about McKenzie Buchanan, 11, of Beaverdam, or Bailey Nixon, 10, of Glen Allen, whom Bull identified as Nixon's stepdaughter and daughter, respectively.

"People were thrown every which way," Bull said. "The emergency response was heroic, and I don't use that word casually."

Bull said the crash occurred as the boat was returning from Windmill Point to a campground at Belle Isle State Park, which is on the Lancaster side of the Rappahannock, almost directly across from Water View.

It was the second fatal boating accident in Virginia in as many days over the long Fourth of July weekend. A 7-year-old boy was operating a boat that slammed into a pier in the Hampton River on Sunday, killing the boy's mother.

"Boaters need to be especially vigilant on the water," Bull said. "Bad things can happen at a moment's notice. They need to be prepared for the worst at all times."