A 63-year-old New Jersey man has been charged with reckless vessel homicide after police say he was drunk at the wheel of a 30-foot boat when it slammed into a channel marker, throwing a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy into the water. Both children died. Stephen Schneider of Bayville surrendered to authorities Friday, nearly a month after the July 19 crash on the Intracoastal Waterway.
What Happened on July 19
According to New Jersey State Police, the crash happened at around 9:09 p.m. when Schneider's 30-foot Tidewater Custom 280 vessel struck a channel marker in the Intracoastal Waterway. The impact threw a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy overboard. Both children died.
NBC News and NBC Philadelphia both covered the original incident. The case remained under investigation for several weeks before Schneider was formally charged Friday. State police say that investigation is still ongoing.
Let that timing sink in for a second. Nine o'clock at night, a large boat, a fixed channel marker that is on every nautical chart and lit for visibility, and two kids end up in the water. Channel markers do not jump out of nowhere. They sit exactly where they always sit.
The Charges Against Schneider
New Jersey State Police announced Schneider faces two counts of second-degree reckless vessel homicide, one count of operating a vessel under the influence, and one count of reckless operation of a vessel. He surrendered voluntarily on Friday, NBC News reports.
Second-degree charges in New Jersey carry serious weight. We are not talking about a slap on the wrist or a suspended license and a fine. Two counts of second-degree reckless vessel homicide for two dead children is, at minimum, the law doing the bare minimum of what the law is supposed to do.
As of Saturday, online court records had not yet reflected the case, and it was not immediately clear whether Schneider had retained an attorney. No statement from a defense lawyer had been made public.
Boating Under the Influence Is a Real and Recurring Catastrophe
There is a persistent cultural blind spot around drunk boating that has never made any sense. People who would never dream of handing their car keys to a hammered friend will happily step aside while someone three drinks deep takes the helm of a vessel that weighs several tons and travels at speed through water where children swim and play.
The U.S. Coast Guard consistently lists alcohol as the leading known contributing factor in fatal recreational boating accidents nationwide. The water does not make you a better driver. The open air does not sober you up faster. The absence of lane markings does not make a crash less deadly. What it does do is make it easier for people to convince themselves that the rules are somehow optional out there.
They are not optional. Two kids are dead.
A Month Later, Some Accountability
The crash happened on July 19. Schneider was charged and surrendered on August 15. Nearly four weeks passed between a crash that killed two children and a formal arrest. State police have not publicly detailed what that investigation involved or why it took the time it did, though investigators presumably needed to establish the facts around his blood alcohol level and the chain of events.
What we do know, per NBC News, is that Schneider was not hauled in the night of the crash and booked on the spot. He surrendered. That is the word state police used. He came in. The families of that 9-year-old girl and that 7-year-old boy spent nearly a month waiting for that to happen.
The Dingo Take
Two children got on a boat on a summer night in July and did not come home. A 63-year-old man allegedly made a choice, or a series of choices, before he got behind that wheel, and a 30-foot boat hit something that was sitting exactly where every chart said it would be sitting. There is no freak accident framing that survives contact with those facts.
What happens next is on the courts. Second-degree reckless vessel homicide is serious by New Jersey standards, and Schneider faces two of those counts. If the evidence holds what the charge implies, the criminal justice system will now do what it is supposed to do. Whether it does it well, or whether it buries this under plea agreements and reduced charges until the families get a outcome that looks nothing like justice, remains to be seen. That part we will be watching.
In the meantime, if you are getting on a boat this summer, or getting on someone else's boat, this is the story you should be thinking about. Not because it will definitely happen to you. But because a 9-year-old and a 7-year-old thought the same thing, and they were wrong.
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