Man charged with OUI after 43-foot boat winds up on Martha’s Vineyard beach, police say

By Russ Reed

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    EDGARTOWN, Massachusetts (WCVB) — A Cape Cod man has been charged with operating a boat under the influence of liquor after the 43-foot vessel he was operating ran aground on a Martha’s Vineyard beach, according to the Massachusetts State Police.

Riley Blizard, 32, of Cotuit, was also charged with negligent operation of a boat, authorities announced Wednesday.

State police said that at about 9:40 p.m. Friday, a trooper from the Oak Bluffs Barracks was notified by Dukes County dispatchers that a large boat had run aground on Chappaquiddick Island.

The trooper made his way to the beach and found the stranded vessel, a Hinckley Sport Boat 40C.

When the trooper and Edgartown police officers approached the boat, they saw two men who were on the vessel when it crashed.

State police said that when the trooper asked the men what happened, they said they made a navigational error.

The trooper said that when he was speaking to the operator of the boat at the time of the crash, who was identified as Blizard, he immediately recognized signs of impairment, according to state police.

Authorities said the trooper escorted Blizard and his passenger to Chappaquiddick Road to administer standardized field sobriety tests to Blizard. According to state police, Blizard was arrested based on the results of the field sobriety tests.

Blizard was transported to the Dukes County Jail to be booked on the OUI and negligent operation charges, and he was scheduled to be arraigned on those charges in Edgartown District Court.

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