Families grieve anew as 3 charged in boat crashes

Charges against three Lexington County men Thursday in a pair of fatal boat collisions on Lake Murray reopened emotional scars that parents and friends of the four victims said will be difficult to heal.

That grief came at a bond hearing in which state natural resources officials outlined more of what happened in the pair of May 1 crashes.

“Our world has been shaken to its very core,” said Paula Bullard of Lexington, a mother of one victim who sometimes wept as she spoke.

Everyone associated with the crashes — including the three facing criminal charges — is suffering, said Linda Legette, mother of another victim.

“It’s devastating for all of us,” she said.

The collisions occurred minutes apart shortly after 10 p.m. May 1 between Susie Ebert and Flotilla islands in a heavily traveled part of the northeast area of the lake.

Those charged after the deadliest weekend on the lake in recent memory are:

•  Steven Kranendonk, 25, of Irmo, with two counts of felony boating under the influence of alcohol. He drove the boat that collided with another carrying friends Kelli Bullard,25, of Lexington and Amber Golden, 24, of Woodville, Ala., both of whom were killed. Kranendonk works at South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. as a nuclear test specialist.

•  Steven Miller, 25, of Irmo, with two counts of felony boating under the influence of alcohol. He drove the johnboat carrying two friends, Matthew Kyle Howk of Columbia and Randall Carter of Irmo, which collided with another vessel. Howk, 21, died shortly after the accident, and Carter, 36, a day later. The johnboat driven by Miller, an unemployed surveyor, was not using required night lighting, authorities said.

•  David Porth, 24, of the Gilbert area, with boating while intoxicated. He drove the boat that collided with the johnboat. State natural resources investigator Sgt. Ray Lewis said Porth, a financial planner, stopped his boat at the scene and cooperated with authorities immediately, even helping them find a site with equipment to measure his intoxication.

Tests showed Porth’s blood-alcohol level was .11, exceeding the .08 reading considered intoxication, investigators said at the court hearing.

Results of similar tests for Kranendonk and Miller were not revealed, although investigators said tests also showed Miller had smoked marijuana.

Penalties for felony BUI , a charge involving death, include from one to 25 years in prison, officials said.

Penalties for BUI include a fine of up to nearly $600, up to 30 days in jail and loss of boating privileges until completion of safety training, officials said.

State troopers who specialize in accident reconstruction used computerized lasers on damaged boats to create an animated reproduction of the collisions, a first in South Carolina.

Kranendonk’s boat left Lighthouse Marina in Ballentine shortly before the first crash occurred at 10:55 p.m., according to investigation reports made public by state natural resources officials after Thursday’s bond hearing at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

He told investigators the watercraft on which the women were riding with two friends appeared on radar and he saw its lights about 100 yards away before striking it in the middle of its left side, throwing three of its four occupants into the water, the report said.

The second collision between the johnboat driven by Miller and Porth’s boat occurred about 11:05 p.m., the reports said.

The reports on that collision said the johnboat did not have its lights operating for navigation at night as required but provide no other detail.

Richland County Magistrate Carol Streator set bond at $25,000 each for Kranendonk and Miller, and at $595 for Porth.

Relatives of Howk and Carter didn’t question the bond for Miller, whose attorney is Jack Swerling, and for Porth, whose attorney is Johnny Gasser.

“They were good friends,” Legette said of her son Carter and Miller. “Steve has suffered for it and will for the rest of his life.”

Howk’s mother, Mary, said she shared that sentiment.

Bullard’s father, Jerry, emotionally asked for denial of bond, pushing for Kranendonk to remain in jail.

His daughter and Golden perished because of Kranendonk’s recklessness, he said.

“Every day, I have to look at the hurt in their eyes,” he said in reference to his wife and other children.

Joanna Cristofoli, whose son was in the boat with the women, looked at a stoic Kranendonk in saying “you have devastated so many people.”

She said she was speaking for Golden’s family.

Kranendonk is sorry for the grief created by the collision in which the two women died, said his lawyer Jonathan Harvey.

“It’s so tragic that the lives of many people have intersected like this,” Harvey said.