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A jolt on the jetty
Cops charge Conn. man with boating while intoxicated after Greenport crash that injures him, 4 others
BY ANDREW STRICKLER
Newsday Staff Writer

July 31, 2006

The Greenport jetty is hard to overlook: a 1,500-foot rock outcropping, capped with a blinking red light that cuts nearly halfway across the waterway outside Greenport Harbor.

But late Saturday night, a Connecticut man who police say was drunk smashed his powerboat into the jetty at a speed one official estimated at 40 mph, injuring himself and his four companions.

Adam Berghenty, 21, of Farmington, Conn., was charged with boating while intoxicated. He and three other passengers of the 31-foot Fountain motorboat, John Gineo, 23, of Clinton, Conn.; Ronny Silva, 24, of Miami, Fla.; and Amanda Giglio, 22, of New Britain, Conn., were in stable condition yesterday at Stony Brook University Hospital.

A fifth passenger, Olivia Farotta, 20, of New Britain, Conn., was taken to Eastern Long Island Hospital, police said. The hospital would not release information about her condition.

Officials and people who live near the jetty said it took rescue workers more than an hour to extract the injured from the heavily damaged boat after the accident at 11:42 p.m.

Based on the condition of the boat, "it was going well in excess" of safe speeds, said Southold constable Donald Dzenkowski, who responded to the accident. According to police, there is no speed limit around the jetty, although the nearby harbor has a 5-mph, no-wake speed limit.

Dzenkowski said the boat struck the jetty about 200 feet from its end, smashing the boat's hull and causing extensive lacerations and fractures to the passengers.

"They were pretty banged-up," he said. He declined to give further details of the injuries.

The boat, which was towed to Albertson Marina in Southold and placed in a nearby warehouse, showed a jagged, 3-foot gash in the bow; the center console seat was partly ripped from the deck.

Southold Fire Department Chief William Witzke, who helped coordinate the rescue from a nearby public beach, said the effort to save the boaters was complicated by the location of the accident.

"We were ... getting people out there on foot, and on boats, and trying to get injured people off a boat that's half in and half out of the water," he said.

He said the jetty could be treacherous for boaters unfamiliar with the area, even with the prominent warning light. "You see the light, but is it a buoy or a jetty?" he said. "It can be deceiving. At night, you're looking at rocks against dark water, and they can blend together. Should it be better marked? Maybe," he said.

But Mike Corso, whose home overlooks the jetty, said the outcropping was well known to local boaters and difficult to overlook, even at night. "If you're in a boat in this area, you know where the jetty is," he said. Corso, who sails in the area, added that the waterway around the jetty is extremely busy during the day but that few boats typically pass after dark.

Marguerite Harvey, who also lives near the jetty, said that many nighttime boaters frequent a waterside bar in Greenport where boaters can dock. "Sometimes we see the boats just speeding by there," she said.

The jetty was the scene of a fatal accident in 2003 in which a Greenport man smashed his 30-foot boat into the man-made breakwater in the dark, killing two of his passengers. Boat owner James McCarthy, who told police he did not see the jetty, also was charged with boating while intoxicated.