RED HOOK, N.Y. — Authorities say one of the four people killed in a Hudson River boating accident last month was drunk at the helm of the vessel, with a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit for safe boating.
The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office says Friday that investigators determined Jay Binns was steering the borrowed power boat when it slammed into a concrete structure jutting into the river near the Columbia-Dutchess county line at about 4:30 a.m. on July 10.
The 41-year-old from Kingston, two other men and a woman were killed. Two other passengers survived.
Investigators say Binns was speeding and had recklessly steered close to shore outside the marked navigation channel.
They say his blood-alcohol content was .23 percent. The legal limit is .08 percent.