Erica Blizzard was convicted of negligent homicide for failing to post a proper lookout
The manager of a New Hampshire marina has been sentenced to at least six months in jail and ordered to pay $4,000 to support boating-safety efforts after a 2008 crash in which her 37-foot powerboat struck an island and killed her close friend.
Erica Blizzard, 36, of Laconia, N.H., who manages Lakeport Landing Marina on Lake Winnipesaukee, suffered serious facial injuries in the collision that occurred about 2:30 a.m. on Father’s Day in June 2008. Her friend Stephanie Beaudoin, 34, of Meredith, N.H., was killed. A third passenger, Nicole Shinopules, 34, of Burlington, Mass., was injured when the Formula 370 Super Sport — powered by twin MerCruiser high-output 425-hp I/Os — slammed into Diamond Island on the southwestern side of the 72-square-mile lake.
Belknap County Superior Court Judge Kathleen McGuire issued the April 21 ruling. Under the sentence, Blizzard must pay more than $15,000 in restitution to Beaudoin’s family, complete 200 hours of community service and contribute $4,000 to the New Hampshire marine patrol for boating safety programs, according to County Attorney James Carroll. After serving an initial six months in jail, Blizzard may be considered for electronic monitoring outside the jail; her sentence does not begin until June because she still requires additional facial surgery for injuries from the accident.
Prosecutors had asked that Blizzard receive one to three years in state prison, the same restitution amount and a five-year revocation of her driving and boat-operation privileges. Carroll said he respects the judge’s decision and is satisfied with the outcome, emphasizing the importance of keeping waterways as safe as roadways when incidents like this occur.
Blizzard addressed the court before sentencing, telling reporters she could not be punished more than by the loss of her best friend and the pain the family endures. “All of this is secondary,” she said. “I lost my best friend and that is something I will have to live with the rest of my life.”
The group had been returning to a Shinopules family home on Sleepers Island after a Father’s Day prank at Blizzard’s father’s waterfront property in the Pendleton Beach area, according to Stephanie Beaudoin’s father, Edgar. The men and women had been boating together regularly, and Edgar Beaudoin described Stephanie as someone who enjoyed the lake though she was not an experienced boater.
In March, a jury found Blizzard guilty of negligent homicide for failing to post a proper lookout. The jury was unable to reach verdicts on two other counts — a second negligent homicide charge alleging operation under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and aggravated driving while intoxicated. Prosecutors presented evidence that Blizzard was operating the boat at more than 30 mph and had a blood alcohol content of 0.15; Blizzard’s lawyer, Jim Moir, disputed those claims, saying she was not intoxicated and that the boat’s speed was between 15 and 20 mph.
Moir told reporters that visibility worsened suddenly just before the crash. “It went from drizzly to very bad visibility,” he said. According to Moir, Blizzard had been navigating by familiar land lights, then lost those landmarks in the heavy rain. He said she slowed, got off plane and proceeded by compass, believing she knew her position — but was about 100 feet off.
Stop and anchor
Stephanie Beaudoin’s father maintains that Blizzard should have stopped and anchored when the weather deteriorated. “If she would have just parked the boat, that would have been the thing to do, no matter where she was,” Edgar Beaudoin said. He suggested checking depth, dropping anchor and waiting until daylight; at the time of the crash it was 2–3 a.m., and he noted there were places to sleep nearby.
According to Lt. Tim Dunleavy of the New Hampshire Marine Patrol, which investigated the accident, Blizzard was contending with heavy rain while operating the Formula, a boat with a relatively short windshield that offered limited protection. The roughly nine-mile trip from Pendleton Beach to Sleepers Island was taking her toward a navigational light on Smith Point, but conditions worsened near Diamond Island and she lost sight of the light. The boat struck a vertical granite outcropping on the island’s north side.
“The hull-to-deck joint separated around about two-thirds of the boat,” Dunleavy said. “The entire bow was ripped off from about 3 feet forward of the windshield, from the deck all the way down to the keel.” He described the seating positions at impact: Blizzard was standing at the helm, Shinopules sat beside her, and Beaudoin was near the centerline just aft of the companionway. Beaudoin was thrown into the door and sustained a fatal neck injury; the other two struck the helm dash area.
Speed on the lake
Night navigation on Lake Winnipesaukee presents unique hazards, Dunleavy said. Lights from the lake’s 300 islands can make it difficult to distinguish shorelines and channels, and operators unfamiliar with the lake’s layout can become disoriented after dark. The last large powerboat fatality on the lake occurred in 2002, when a 36-foot performance boat collided with a smaller vessel; the skipper in that case was convicted of negligent homicide for operating without a proper lookout and served several years in prison.
Powerboat speeds on Winnipesaukee have been controversial. A temporary two-year speed limit of 45 mph by day and 25 mph by night was due to expire at year’s end, and the debate over limits has been deeply divisive in the state. At the time of the 2008 crash, Blizzard served as president of the New Hampshire Recreational Boaters Association, a group that recently opposed speed limits on the lake. Her father owns Lakeport Landing Marina, and Moir noted that Blizzard grew up on the lake and holds the state-required boating license.
Edgar Beaudoin emphasized the close bond between his daughter and Blizzard and recalled Blizzard’s kindness to his family. “Erica was very good to us,” he said. “She would bring flowers to us every once in a while. Erica as we knew Erica was a very nice girl. … She was Stephanie’s friend, and friends don’t abandon friends, even in death.”
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This article originally appeared in the June 2010 issue.