7-Year-Old Causes Virginia Boat Accident That Kills Ones, Injures Othe | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

Virginia Police are unsure whether or not charges will follow a fatal boat crash that occurred on the Hampton River last week. The boat was being driven by a seven-year-old at the time of the deadly boat accident.

According to the North Carolina Daily Press and the Virginia Marine Police, the boat accident occurred on Sunday evening when the boy, his mother, his grandmother, and two other people were aboard a 20-foot boat. With the young boy behind the wheel, he suddenly steered the boat into a pier, crashing the vessel and throwing his mother, 35-year-old Elizabeth Elliott, through the windshield of the boat. She died of blunt force trauma to her head and chest though emergency workers rushed her to Riverside Regional Medical Center.

While there are no laws regarding how old you must be to operate a boat in Virginia, police are considering charging whoever let the boy take the wheel with reckless boating. The boating party was headed home after a day on the river at around 6 in the evening when an adult briefly handed the boat over to the little boy.

In another Virginia boating accident, 24-year-old Amanda Brady of Richmond was killed when a 25-foot boat carrying ten people crashed into a channel marker on the Rappahannock River in Middlesex County. In that boating accident, two other people were also critically injured. It is unclear why that boating accident occurred or whether speed or alcohol were factors in the crash.