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. “He brought it on himself.” Fabian, a former licensed practical nurse, had once rescued a boater after a crash on the Connecticut River and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until medical personnel arrived, his family reported.

As a boating accident, Fabian’s was as typical as it was sad. The great majority of boating accidents in the United States occur because people fail to pay attention, wear life jackets, or are using substances, said Walt Taylor, recreational boating safety specialist for the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston.

In 2021, the Coast Guard reported 43 boating accidents and seven deaths in Connecticut. In 2020, there were more boating accidents in Connecticut— 54 —but fewer deaths, three, according to the Coast Guard’s annual Recreational Boating Statistics report.

Small though these numbers are, what’s striking about the fatalities is that all of them could have been prevented. Taylor said he avoids calling boating mishaps accidents, preferring the word “incidents,” since they are often the result of choices.

Five of the seven men who died boating in Connecticut waters in 2021 were not wearing life jackets, and a sixth, Fabian, wore an ill-fitting one. Had they been wearing proper life jackets—technically known as personal floatation devices or PFDs—they likely would have survived, Taylor said. The seventh died of blunt force trauma.

As in Connecticut, nationally, boating accidents declined in 2021 to 4,439 from 5,265 in 2020. But unlike in Connecticut, boating fatalities nationwide also declined from 2020 to 2021, from 767 to 658.

An estimated 80% of U.S. boating deaths last year were from drowning after falling overboard, according to the Coast Guard’s report. And of those who drowned, 83% of them were not wearing life jackets. Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in boating accidents and the primary reason for 16% of accidents nationwide, the report said.

Coast Guard Photo.

Not paying attention is the deadly cause of most boating accidents, said Walt Taylor of the Coast Guard.

Boaters are legally intoxicated with blood alcohol levels of .08%, or .02% for those under age 21. And Connecticut law requires that people carry life jackets on board and that children under 12 wear one while on a vessel’s deck. Everyone on board a “manually propelled” boat, such as a canoe or kayak, must wear a life jacket between October 1 and May 31.

The problem, Taylor acknowledged, is that once a boat starts capsizing, it’s too late to grab the PFDs and put them on.

“Nobody plans on going out on the boat and, quote, accidentally falling overboard,” Taylor said. “It’s the same rationale as not putting your seatbelt on until the moment you need it. In the event you do find yourself in the water, it’s too late.”

Fabian’s death and most of the other boating fatalities in Connecticut last year are grim proof of that statement. On April 10, a kayak capsized in Long Meadow Pond in Middlebury. The 26-year-old paddler struggled and submerged, drowning despite witnesses’ efforts to find and rescue him. His body was found the next day. Officials said he wore no life jacket and had marijuana in his bloodstream and a blood alcohol content of .012.

On May 8, Michael Lowell, 58, of Putnam, was fishing from a kayak in the Quinebaug River in Pomfret. Two companions in other boats paddled upstream, and when they returned, they could not find Lowell and reported him missing. Later, his overturned boat was found many miles downstream and his body floating 198 yards away from it, DEEP reported. Officials determined he had drowned; he wore no life jacket.

On June 8, Philip Blouin, 50, who had gone fishing in a motorized canoe the previous night, was found dead after his family reported him missing. He wore no life jacket, his blood alcohol was .180 and THC was detected in his bloodstream. In addition, officials said he had no required safe boating certificate, and the trolling motor on the unregistered boat had fishing line wrapped around it.

Two men launched a canoe in Stamford and capsized near the Woodway Beach Club on July 10. Four lifeguards from the club rescued and tried to revive Lorenzo Macua, 63, of Norwalk, but he was pronounced dead at Stamford Hospital. The second canoeist, 50, wasn’t identified, but officials said he swam to shore and was unhurt. Neither of them wore a life jacket.

Akida Edwards, 45, of New York City, ventured out in a kayak at night in Wyassup Lake in North Stonington on September 25. He was reported missing. Divers found his body late the next morning. DEEP said he drowned after falling out of the boat and that alcohol and drugs were found in his system.

The only non-drowning boating accident last year happened on July 27, when 18-year-old Matthew A. Horvath of Shelton and a friend were riding their personal watercrafts off Cedar Beach in Milford when they collided. Horvath, a varsity soccer player who graduated from Shelton High School that spring, died of blunt force trauma. Officials did not identify the other rider, who was not hurt. DEEP officials said neither wore a life jacket and that speed may have contributed to the crash. Alcohol was detected in Horvath’s system, DEEP spokesman Matt Healey said.

“Anyone operating a personal watercraft should understand that it is a motor vehicle, similar to a car but on water,” Healey said. “Before getting on the water, operators should take safe boating courses and obtain their certificate of personal watercraft operation. Lifejackets should be worn at all times, and safe speeds should be maintained. Alcohol should never be consumed when getting in or on the water or when operating any type of vessel.”

Not paying attention is the deadly cause of most boating accidents in the United States, Taylor said. Even when they are sober, distraction is a big factor. He said people pay too much attention to their radar, fish finding, and navigation devices. “A lot of times, people get so fixed on those things that they’re not looking right in front of them.”

The 25-year-old driver, Arthur King Hall of Guilford, later admitted he’d been drinking before the accident. The arrest warrant charging Hall with multiple felony counts, including second-degree manslaughter, listed his blood-alcohol level as 0.32—four times the legal limit.

Three days later and 25 miles away, Michael Krupa, 22, of Middletown, disappeared beneath the waves after he and a friend took a kayak out in rough seas near Milford and capsized sometime after midnight.  Officials reported that Krupa had been drinking at a beach party just before paddling to Charles Island. Neither he nor the other paddler, who swam to safety, was wearing a life jacket, and there were none in the kayak, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.

Earlier this month, Hall accepted a plea bargain that prosecutors say will send him to prison for 3½ years.

Krupa’s remains were found just last year and identified in April.

Both accidents occurred over the 2009 Labor Day weekend, during an unprecedented four-year jump in alcohol-related boating deaths in Connecticut.

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. The worst single year was 2008, when seven people died, including two double fatalities.  From 1999 through 2006, no year had seen more than two such deaths.

More than 47 percent of all boating deaths in the state from 1998 to 2010—36 of 76 – had what the Coast Guard calls “alcohol involvement, ” indicating that alcohol had been consumed by a boat’s occupants before the accident, C-HIT’s review found. In 2010, five of six deaths involved alcohol.

Connecticut’s rate of boating deaths where alcohol was an actual cause exceeded the national average in the last decade. A full one-third of all boating deaths in the state cited alcohol as a “contributing factor,” indicating a direct or indirect cause. Nationally, drinking was reported as a contributing factor in just one in five fatalities, the data shows. The Coast Guard cautions that higher rates for some states may indicate better reporting, rather than higher alcohol involvement.

The review also found that none of the 34 people who died in drinking-related accidents from 1998 to 2010 was wearing a life jacket. And more than one third of all boating deaths in Connecticut linked to alcohol since 1998 involved non-motorized craft – canoes, kayaks and rowboats.

While Connecticut has taken steps to crack down on alcohol-related incidents, including passing a law in 2009 that toughened penalties, the state does not mandate the wearing of life jackets on all boats, and enforcement officers are hampered in their ability to test boaters for sobriety on-the-spot, without taking them to shore.

Also, while the number of boating accidents investigated by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has tracked upward over the past five years, its staff of enforcement officers and investigators dropped 20 percent over the past decade, officials said.

Tony Bacewicz Photo

Eleanor Mariani, state boating official, secures a line during a training exercise with Conn. Environmental Conservation Police officers.

DEEP boating officials say they became concerned several years ago about the dramatic rise in boating deaths involving alcohol. Since then, the agency has initiated stricter enforcement and public education campaigns to discourage drinking while boating, said Eleanor Mariani, director of the DEEP’s boating division.

“For the longest time, being out on the water was an extension of ‘it’s time to drink,’ ” said Mariani.  “We’re trying to change that mentality.”

Records show that none of nine boating deaths in 2011 was alcohol-related—but Mariani said it would be premature to credit tougher laws and stricter enforcement for the drop.

“We’re tracking it and hope we’re making a difference, but it’s too soon to tell,” she said.

Higher Risk, Tougher Approach

Drunken boaters run a much higher risk of crashing, capsizing or falling overboard, officials warn. Alcohol can impair both operators and passengers, affecting judgment, balance, vision and reaction time. Sun, wind, noise, and even vibrations on the water can intensify the effects of alcohol and drugs.

In Connecticut, the dangers of boating and alcohol came into sharp focus —and led to tougher laws—in July 2007, when Susan Brandes, 53, of South Windsor, was killed as she lay on the deck of her 16-foot sailboat. Brandes and her husband, Leland, were sailing on Long Island Sound off Old Saybrook when a runaway 20-foot motorboat struck their vessel. The accident also resulted in the partial amputation of Leland Brandes’ right hand, as well as injuries to two other passengers.

The motorboat operator, Gregory Siege, then 44, was boating alone when he fell out of his 200-horsepower outboard, a DEEP investigation found.  Siege, of Madison, tested with a blood-alcohol level of .17, more than twice the legal limit. He was charged with second-degree manslaughter and boating under the influence of alcohol (BUI).

Siege accepted a plea agreement in 2009 that included a prior charge of driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. He is serving a four-year prison sentence, to be followed by five years of probation.

Paul Berg, a Simsbury resident who witnessed the accident from his boat and stayed at the scene to help the victims, still becomes emotional when he recalls seeing “a giant red pool” surrounding Brandes as he held his wife.

“It was really devastating,” Berg said.  “I just hope he never has to remember what happened to her.”

Leland Brandes, now 73 and remarried, said he remembers little about the accident.  He said that despite his loss, he believes something good came from the tragedy—the 2009 state law that toughened penalties for boating under the influence.

Siege, who is scheduled for release later this year, declined a request for an interview.

The laws that came out of the accident include a 2008 provision that allows police to charge an operator with boating under the influence, even if a sobriety test is administered outside the standard two-hour window.  Because Siege had been tested 10 minutes after that two-hour limit, he had been able to contest the BUI charge in court, DEEP officials said.

“We lost a few good cases because we couldn’t get the people in fast enough” for testing, said Mariani.

The 2009 change in the law imposed tougher penalties for boating under the influence when a death results. Before the law change, a boater could be fined between $2,500 and $5,000 and sentenced to up to two years in prison. Now, drunken boaters can be charged with second-degree manslaughter, a class C felony, face fines of up to $10,000, and be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Hall, the boater in the Guilford crash, became the first person to be charged under the tougher law, in June 2010.  In court earlier this month, he accepted a plea agreement and apologized to the victims’ mothers.

Now 27, Hall is scheduled for sentencing in July, where he is expected to receive a 10-year prison sentence, suspended after 3 1/2 years. He is facing separate lawsuits from the families of all three passengers—Cook, who died, and survivors Devon Hardy and Elizabeth Protzman, who were both seriously injured.

Arrests Up, Obstacles Remain

Tony Bacewicz Photo

EnCon Police dock boat during a training exercise on the Connecticut River.

Michelle Lettieri, director of victim services for the state chapter of Mothers against Drunk Driving, has worked with survivors of several high-profile boating accidents, including Protzman and Brandes.

A lifelong boater, Lettieri thinks such cases, combined with public education, may be helping people realize that drinking and boating can have the same consequences as drinking and driving.

“A lot of time, people aren’t thinking,” she said. “They see boating as a sport. They’re on the water, having a good time.”

An official determination that alcohol is a factor in a boating fatality can come from either testing the victim or operator, or from an investigator’s observations and interviews, Mariani said. The law requires that a blood sample be taken from any victim of a fatal boating accident.

State officials say they have stepped up enforcement of BUI laws in recent years, are making more random stops, and are revoking more Safe Boating Certificates, which are required to operate a boat in Connecticut, from individuals convicted of BUI.

State and local officers reported 15 BUI arrests in each of the last two years—more than twice the number in 2008 and three times those in 2009, said Timothy Delgado of the DEEP’s boating division.

Staffing cuts have strained DEEP’s enforcement and investigative resources. While the number of boating accidents DEEP investigates each year climbed from 58 in 2006 to 84 in 2010, staffing of DEEP’s Environmental Conservation (EnCon) Police, responsible for a wide range of recreational policing, has dropped from 63 officers a decade ago to 50 last year, said Col. Kyle Overturf, division head.

Tony Bacewicz Photo

Elise Bouthillier, EnCon Police officer, tends a line during training.

Overall in Connecticut, 84 percent of the accident victims who died from 1998 to 2010 were not wearing a life jacket, data shows.  When alcohol was a factor, none of the 34 victims was wearing a life preserver, reports show.

In September 2008, two men drowned when their canoe capsized on Monce Pond in Burlington. A witness who arrived with the pair told investigators that each had consumed four shots of vodka before boarding the canoe and had brought a bottle of vodka with them, according to a Coast Guard report. Neither was wearing a life jacket. One of the victim’s blood-alcohol levels was four times the legal limit, while the other’s was twice the limit, investigators found.

Federal and state boating officials recommend that boaters wear life jackets, but there are few laws mandating it. Connecticut law says life jackets must be worn by children under 13, in canoes and kayaks from Oct. 1 to May 31, and year-round on personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis.  Otherwise, the only requirement is that each vessel has a life jacket on board for each passenger.

While the state isn’t pushing for a stricter life jacket law, Mariani said, DEEP officials are using education programs and social marketing to encourage boaters to wear them.  The agency also has a designated vessel that the DEEP uses to visit boaters on the water and talk to them about the dangers of drinking and boating.

Since 2009, Connecticut has joined the Coast Guard in “Operation Dry Water,” a national campaign over the July 4th weekend to reduce alcohol and drug-related accidents and fatalities.

Sgt. Eric Lundin of the EnCon Police said officers have authority to stop and board any vessel if they see suspect behavior, such as going too fast in a no-wake area. Although carrying alcohol onboard or holding an alcoholic drink while operating a boat are not illegal in Connecticut, officials say such behavior can prompt a routine inspection.

Overturf said deciding whether to bring a boater to shore for alcohol testing is a judgment call, since standard sobriety tests cannot be conducted on-board vessels in Connecticut. Officers gauge whether operators have alcohol on their breath or are slurring their words, while they also survey the boat for empty bottles and cans. If the boater appears intoxicated, the officer may bring him or her to shore for testing, Overturf said.

Overturf said two officers are being the trained to administer recently developed “seated sobriety tests” on the water, which “would make the process of detecting boaters under the influence easier for officers.” The tests would still need approval by the state’s attorney’s office and would not likely be available to officers until the 2013 boating season, he said.

Melanie Deziel contributed to this story.

This story was reported under a partnership with the University of Connecticut’s Journalism Department.

Just before 1 a.m., the speedboat driven by Richard Layton Jr. of New Milford collided with an 18-foot Triton bass boat carrying two fishermen, according to state investigators. Layton, 33, and a passenger, Jason Wanat, 29, of West Redding, died in the crash, and another passenger, Kevin Sullivan of Bridgewater, was critically injured. The two fishermen escaped serious injury.

Courtesy of DEEP

The cooler, beer and Gatorade recovered by investigators.

Investigation photos show the contents of a cooler recovered from the speedboat: 19 empty beer bottles and cans, 25 unopened beers, and four unopened bottles of Gatorade. A sticker on the cooler reads: “I came…I drank…I don’t remember!” Testing showed Layton had a blood alcohol level of .19, more than twice the legal limit for operating a boat, while Wanat’s level was .13.

The DEEP’s final report blamed the accident on Layton’s reckless driving at an “unsafe speed … while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs.”

The 2008 crash was one of Connecticut’s worst boating accidents in recent memory and came during the state’s deadliest year for boating fatalities involving alcohol since 1998.

“I think it was a real wake-up call for people around the lake,” said Eleanor Mariani, boating division director of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

Though no criminal charges were filed, the crash left a legacy of litigation in the Candlewood community. Three lawsuits were filed against the bar that served Layton’s party. Two other lawsuits named scores of defendants, including officials of the Candlewood Lake Authority (CLA), members of its lake patrol, and the five municipalities that comprise the authority.

The lawsuits against the bar were settled out of court, but the other two are scheduled to begin trial in November, according to court records.

The accident highlights Candlewood’s reputation as the state’s most dangerous lake. Bordered by Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford and Sherman, the lake had nearly four times as many accidents as did any other inland lake in Connecticut, a review of U.S. Coast Guard data from 1995-2009 showed. There were 74 reported accidents on Candlewood, 19 on Lake Zoar and 16 on Bantam Lake. In all, 69 boaters were injured on Candlewood Lake in that period, while 15 injuries were reported on Lake Zoar, and 10 on Bantam Lake.

Only the state’s two largest boating areas, Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River, had more accidents.

During last year’s boating season, the DEEP made five arrests on Candlewood for boating while intoxicated (BUI)—representing a full third of all such arrests statewide, figures show.

Boat congestion is a major factor on Candlewood, which measures roughly 11 miles by two miles and covers 5,400 acres. A boat survey conducted by CLA during the first few weeks of August 2008 counted 5,677 vessels along its 65 miles of shoreline, and fly-over images showed as many as 637 boats on the lake at one time, more than 90 percent of them powerboats.

Fishing adds to the congestion. Candlewood ranks highest in the number of tournaments and fishing vessels per acre in the state, according to the DEEP. In 2007, the agency permitted about 150 fishing tournaments, nearly three times as many tournaments as approved for Connecticut’s second-largest lake, Lake Lillinonah.

Courtesy of DEEP

Speedboat involved in 2008 fatal accident on Candlewood Lake.

The fatal 2008 crash has fueled an ongoing debate about how crowded boating conditions, alcohol use, and enforcement limitations contribute to the high accident count on the state’s largest lake.

“I personally know four or five people that won’t go back out there because of that [accident],” said Jason Hanakahi, a mechanic who runs the yard at Echo Bay Marina in Brookfield and who has worked on Candlewood for 20 years.

Since the crash, state and local officials have taken steps to reduce the number of alcohol-related accidents, including public awareness programs and tougher enforcement policies. The CLA, the governing body composed of delegates from each of the five towns bordering the lake, is pushing to hire more officers qualified to enforce BUI laws, but budget constraints have kept it from significantly increasing lake patrols, said Larry Marsicano, executive director.

DEEP officials say the agency has stepped up enforcement of BUI laws across the state, specifically targeting Candlewood Lake for increased stops and one-on-one talks with boaters. But facing its own budget issues, DEEP is reducing its presence on Candlewood by one seasonal officer this summer, said Col. Kyle Overturf, head of the agency’s Environmental Conservation Police, with a force consisting of one sergeant and three officers.

DEEP data covering the last 19 years shows that about 10 percent of 116 reported accidents on Candlewood involved alcohol, Mariani said. The two fatal boating accidents on Candlewood in the past decade both involved alcohol.  The first fatality was in 2005, when a 48-year-old New York man fell out of his pontoon boat and drowned.

“Candlewood Lake? Very busy. Very congested,” said Michelle Lettieri, a boater and director of victim services for the Connecticut chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She said she prefers to boat elsewhere because she finds Candlewood too crowded.

Hanakahi and Lettieri say alcohol heightens the dangers presented by crowded conditions.

“Obviously you wouldn’t have as many accidents if the drunk person didn’t have as many things to run into,” Hanakahi said.

Hanakahi, who likes to fish in the early morning, said some boaters get onto the lake and start drinking as early as 7 a.m.

“By the time lunchtime comes, they’re already hammered. And I see people out there that are so hammered, they can’t even see,” Hanakahi said.

Exactly one year to the day after the fatal July 2008 crash, three men were hospitalized when a 24-foot cabin cruiser struck Candlewood’s rocky western shore at 3 a.m. Investigators ruled alcohol was the primary cause and charged the operator with BUI.

In recent years, the CLA has disagreed with DEEP’s public contention that accidents on Candlewood have been decreasing. In 2008, the agency’s commissioner, Gina McCarthy, told a legislative committee that “a review of the boating accidents over the last five years (2003 to 2007) shows a steady decrease in the number of accidents on the lake,” after patrols were increased in 2004. The assessment included a record-high 16 reported accidents in 2004 and considerably fewer for each year after.

But the CLA did its own analysis of a longer period —1995-2008—and concluded in a 2009 report that “no trend in accidents over time since 1995 was observed. This suggests that the pressures from overcrowding on Candlewood Lake are not changing, despite increased patrol activity in recent years.”

Marsicano said that during the busy boating season, the CLA’s Marine Patrol typically has two, occasionally three, boats out at one time, excluding DEEP patrols. The CLA hires up to 25 part-time patrol officers during the boating season, but many lack the training and certification to enforce BUI laws.

The CLA is moving toward hiring more officers authorized to make BUI arrests – typically full-time police officers elsewhere who work part-time on the lake—but finding them “is easier said than done,” Marsicano said. He noted that there are no night patrols.

“We don’t have the resources,” he said, adding that CLA has not increased its patrol force substantially in at least seven years.

Sherman’s director of Parks and Recreation John Wrenn said Candlewood continues to have a reputation as a place where alcohol abuse is a part of boating.

“Budget-wise, everything’s been getting tighter, tighter and tighter. Unfortunately, you get less and less monitoring,” Wrenn said. “[Patrolling] is probably the only way you can lessen it. Lessen it, because you’re never going to stop it.”

As the Candlewood community prepares for another boating season, the legacy of the fatal 2008 crash remains, in the form of two complex lawsuits winding through the court system.

John Wanat, the father of the speedboat passenger who died, is suing 60 individuals and organizations. Defendants include officials and delegates to the lake authority, members of the authority’s lake patrol, and two bass fishing organizations, for allegedly not ensuring that the fishing boat operator had a Connecticut Safe Boating Certificate.  Sullivan, the speedboat passenger who survived, is suing most of the same defendants in a separate lawsuit.

Individual lawsuits against the bar that served Layton’s party filed by Sullivan, John Wanat and the bass boat owner were combined last year and settled out of court without any admission of guilt.

The amount was not disclosed, but was reported to be less than $250,000.

Melanie Deziel contributed to this story.

This story was reported under a partnership with the University of Connecticut’s Journalism Department.