Mom charged in son’s fatal Barnegat Bay boat crash as deadly summer continues

🚨Jennifer Pearson faces charges in the May crash that killed her 28-year-old son

🚨Investigators say her BAC level was between .09 and .12 at the time of the crash.

🚨Four people have died in motorboat crashes on Barnegat Bay this summer.

The mother of a man killed in a motorboat crash on Barnegat Bay during Memorial Day weekend has been charged in his death.

Gunnar Pearson, 28, of Barnegat, died on May 25  after the Trophy 2203CC center console he was riding in slammed into a day marker around 5:45 p.m. Pearson and his girlfriend were thrown into the water during the crash and rushed to a hospital, according to State Police. Four others on board were injured.

Pearson's mother, Jennifer Pearson, 59, was driving the boat when it crashed into Intracoastal Watermarker #79 near the Brant Beach Yacht Club, according to court documents. She told investigators, who smelled alcohol when she arrived to speak with them, that she had two alcoholic drinks earlier in the afternoon.

She was charged Wednesday with death by vessel for operating a vessel recklessly while under the influence of alcohol.

Pearson is being held at the Ocean County Jail. Her detention hearing is scheduled for Friday morning.

New Jersey 101.5 has learned that at the time of the crash, Jennifer Pearson's blood alcohol level was between .09 and .12.

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Gunnar Pearson

Two children died in another Barnegat Bay marker crash

Pearson ran track at Barnegat High School and Stockton University and was a former lifeguard in Ship Bottom. He was also a member of the New Jersey National Guard, according to a GoFundMe campaign and Barnegat American Legion Post 232.

His death came during what has become a deadly summer on Barnegat Bay, with four deaths on the water involving motorboats.

Mya Bella Golabek, 9, and Sigmund "Siggy" Paul Golabek, 7, died on July 19 when a motorboat driven by their grandfather crashed into a waterway marker in Barnegat Bay.

Stephen Schneider, 63, of the Bayville section of Berkeley was charged with reckless vessel homicide after prosecutors say his boat struck a waterway channel marker. Prosecutors said his blood alcohol level was 0.16 after the crash.

Schneider was released during his detention hearing on Wednesday after the children's parents wrote letters to the judge about his importance to their family.

In a crash on July 25, a 32-foot Boston Whaler carrying five people struck a channel marker in Barnegat Bay off Toms River.

Michael T. Bereheiko, 26, of Green Brook, was pronounced dead at a hospital, State Police said.

No charges have been filed.

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