An alleged drunken boater who crashed his motorboat into a New Jersey channel marker, killing a 26-year-old passenger, has been charged with homicide in the third such deadly boat wreck along the Jersey Shore this summer.
Kevin Wells, 40, was arrested and charged with vessel homicide Friday, over a month after he crashed a 32-foot Boston Whaler into a channel marker near Toms River while allegedly boating intoxicated, NJ.com reported.
The July 25 crash killed Michael T. Bereheiko, a 26-year-old construction worker from Green Brook, seriously injured two 27-year-old men and also scraped up a 24-year-old woman, police said.
Authorities said that after the crash, Wells rushed the boat to a nearby residence in Toms River, where first responders rushed victims to nearby hospitals.
Bereheiko was pronounced dead soon after.
Family members remembered him as a star high school football player who also loved “spending time at the Jersey Shore, where he could relax, laugh, and enjoy the company of those closest to him,” according to an obituary.
Wells was arrested on Friday and charged with reckless vessel homicide and two counts of assault by vessel while intoxicated or refusing a blood alcohol test, according to court records.
Wells could not be reached for comment, and it was unclear who his lawyer was. He’s expected to appear in Ocean County Court for a hearing, records show.
The 40-year-old is the latest to be charged with homicide in a series of deadly but preventable crashes involving intoxicated boaters along the Jersey Shore this summer.
Jennifer Pearson, 59, was charged with the death of her son Gunnar Pearson, 28, after an allegedly intoxicated boating crash on Memorial Day.
Stephen Schneider, 64, was also charged after his two grandchildren died in a boating crash on Barnegat Bay while he was allegedly driving drunk on July 19, police said.
Like Wells, both Pearson and Schneider struck channel markers with the impact killing their loved ones.
