Blunt Trauma, Drowning Caused Keansburg Man's Death In Boating Accident

While autopsy results are in and a bit more detail is available on the , NJ State Police caution that the investigation is still ongoing.

“Right now, as far as any additional charges beyond the driving while intoxicated, none have been pressed yet,” NJ State Police Sgt. Brian Polite said today. “It is still under investigation.”

However, Polite said, the medical examiner, from Centra State Medical Center, Freehold, has completed the autopsy and “the cause of death was determined to be multiple blunt force trauma (over the entire body) of the victim associated with drowning.” That victim is Christopher Plant, 50, of Keansburg.

“Basically, what it means is that he was struck (by the other boat), suffered the injuries from that and then from being propelled from the boat and drowning,” Sgt. Polite explained.

Plant was the victim in the two-boat crash on the Middletown side of the Navesink that happened at about 10 p.m. on Saturday night. His Stingray, a smaller pleasure cruise motorboat, was hit by a 20-foot-long Boston Whaler, which is a dual purpose, pleasure/fishing boat commonly promoted as unsinkable.

The Whaler, driven by George Harrington, 39, of Atlantic Highlands, collided with the Stingray. The force of the collision threw all five passengers of the Whaler into the water, but all made it back on board safely.

Plant, on the other hand, did not. Though the passenger on his boat survived and did not sustain injuries.

New, more involved, detail revealed in the investigation is that the boats did not just collide or crash.

“Preliminary investigation results indicate that the Whaler was traveling at a high rate of speed when it struck the Stingray and ended up running on top of the boat, hitting Plant and resting on the boat’s sternum,” Polite said.

As of yet, Harrington, the Whaler driver, has only been charged with the driving while intoxicated charge leveled by NJ State Police at him on Saturday night.

More details will become available as the investigation unfolds, Sgt. Polite said.