Jet Skier Sinks Boat 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
[This story is online at http://www.app.com/app2001/story/0,21133,591398,00.html]
If you were driving a jet ski, late at night, on a dark river, you would drive slowly, proceeding with caution. If you came upon a moored 28 foot sailboat, you would turn to avoid it.
Alton Hovnanian did neither: he drove his jet ski fast enough to embed it into the side of the yacht, sinking the boat. He killed himself in the collision.
Hovnania, 15, might have been ignorant of the New Jersey law prohibiting jet ski usage in the evening (beginning one hour before sunset), but he was definitely lacking the common sense gene: even lower-order life forms know that you shouldn't drive fast when you can't see.
Not only was he driving fast, he failed to notice the ILLUMINATED sailboat directly in his path. The illuminated STATIONARY sailboat. It takes a special skill to collide with a non-moving, lighted object, and Alton, it seems, possessed it. It is because of this rare skill that I nominate Alton for the Darwin award: I think it is truly deserved.
Below is the text of the newspaper article (taken from the above mentioned website):
River crash kills Hovnanian son, 15
Published in the Asbury Park Press 7/17/02
By ANDREA ALEXANDER
STAFF WRITER
IDDLETOWN -- Alton Ara Hovnanian, 15, whose family owns the state's largest home construction company, was killed Monday night when his personal watercraft slammed into a moored sailboat.
He had been camping with friends on Starvation Island in the Navesink River, returned home to pick up insect-repelling candles, and was returning to the campsite when the accident happened.
He was found floating unconscious in the water by a caretaker for the family's home and pronounced dead at the scene, said Police Chief John F. Pollinger.
His mother, Rachel Hovnanian, had asked Alton to call home on his cellular phone to let her know he reached the site safely. When she did not hear from him by 11 p.m. she called police and reported her son missing in the water, Pollinger said.
Shortly after authorities arrived, the caretaker, Walter Almeida, found Alton and removed him from the water, Pollinger said.
Ambulances were on the scene and emergency medical technicians tried to revive Alton using CPR and a defibrillator, but were unsuccessful, Pollinger said.
The watercraft had struck and sunk a 28-foot sailboat that was moored about 700 feet north of the Oceanic Bridge.
A light on the mast of the sailboat, required of all moored craft, was visible at the time of the accident, authorities said.
State Police divers searched all night for anyone who might have been on the sailboat but found nothing. No one was on the boat when it was hit, said Sgt. Al Della Fave, spokesman for the New Jersey State Police.
The boat remained underwater yesterday and Della Fave said he had no information on ownership.
The teen-ager was wearing his life jacket at the time of the accident, Pollinger said.
Authorities said the watercraft was believed to be embedded in the side of the sailboat and it also was underwater.
The mast of the sailboat could be seen above the surface because the water level was low yesterday.
Della Fave said authorities are waiting until the tide rises today to be able to lift both craft from the water.
Police are continuing to investigate, but Della Fave said, "it was a simple tragic accident."
Rules require personal watercraft use to cease one hour before sunset, so the teen should not have been on the water that late at night, Della Fave said.
Pollinger said the Hovnanian caretaker's wife packed marshmallows, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit drinks and soda for the campers to take to the island.
'He was just going out to the island to go camping," Pollinger said. 'It is something that all the kids do. . . . It is just not fair."
A woman who answered the door at the family's home in the Locust section of the township said the Hovnanians needed time before they could talk about what happened.
Alton graduated this year from eighth grade at the Rumson Country Day School.
A memorial service is planned for 5 p.m. tomorrow at the school's Blake Gymnasium, according to the school Web site.
Alton's family owns one of the nation's largest home building companies, Hovnanian Enterprises Inc.
It was founded in 1959 by Kevork S. Hovnanian and three of his brothers, ethnic Armenians who had come to America to escape the revolutionary turmoil of their native Iraq.
The company has built over 100,000 homes nationwide and is New Jersey's largest homebuilder.
Kevork's son Ara K. Hovnanian, the victim's father, joined the firm in 1979 and became presi-dent and chief executive officer in 1988, while Kevork, now 78, re-tained the title of chairman.
embers of the family control nearly 80 percent of the stock.
The company had grown with New Jersey and subsequently suf-fered when the real estate market went bust at the end of the 1980s.
To recover, Hovnanian expanded to other states, now building homes in places such as the Washington, D.C., area, North Carolina, California, Texas, Ten-nessee, Alabama and Mississippi.
Staff writers Dennis Carmody and Sherry Figdore contributed to this story.
Andrea Alexander: (732) 888-2622 or andrea@app.com
Submitted on 07/19/2002
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
Asbury Park Press 7/17/02
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