MIDDLETOWN — Alton Ara Hovnanian, 15, whose family owns the state’s largest home construction company, was killed Monday night when his personal watercraft slammed into a moored sailboat.
He had been camping with friends on Starvation Island
in the Navesink River, returned home to pick up
insect-repelling candles, and was returning to the
campsite when the accident happened.
He was found floating unconscious in the water by a
caretaker for the family’s home and pronounced dead at
the scene, said Police Chief John F. Pollinger.
His mother, Rachel Hovnanian, had asked Alton to call
home on his cellular phone to let her know he reached
the site safely. When she did not hear from him by 11
p.m. she called police and reported her son missing in
the water, Pollinger said.
Shortly after authorities arrived, the caretaker, Walter
Almeida, found Alton and removed him from the water,
Pollinger said.
Ambulances were on the scene and emergency medical technicians tried to revive Alton using CPR and a defibrillator, but were unsuccessful, Pollinger said.
The watercraft had struck and sunk a 28-foot sailboat that
was moored about 700 feet north of the Oceanic Bridge.
A light on the mast of the sailboat, required of all
moored craft, was visible at the time of the accident, authorities said.
State Police divers searched all night for anyone who
might have been on the sailboat but found nothing. No one was on the boat when it was hit,said Sgt. Al Della Fave, spokesman for the New Jersey State Police.
The boat remained underwater yesterday and Della Fave said
he had no information on ownership.
The teen-ager was wearing his life jacket at the time of
the accident, Pollinger said.
Authorities said the watercraft was believed to be
embedded in the side of the sailboat and it also was underwater.
The mast of the sailboat could be seen above the surface
because the water level was low yesterday.
Della Fave said authorities are waiting until the tide
rises today to be able to lift both craft from the water.
Police are continuing to investigate, but Della Fave said,
“it was a simple tragic accident.”
Rules require personal watercraft use to cease one hour
before sunset, so the teen should not have been on the water that late at night, Della Fave said.
Pollinger said the Hovnanian caretaker’s wife packed
marshmallows, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit drinks and soda for the campers to take,to the island.
‘He was just going out to the island to go camping,”
Pollinger said. ‘It is something that all the
kids do. . . . It is just not fair.”
A woman who answered the door at the family’s home in the
Locust section of the township
said the Hovnanians needed time before they could talk
about what happened.
Alton graduated this year from eighth grade at the Rumson
Country Day School.
A memorial service is planned for 5 p.m. tomorrow at the
school’s Blake Gymnasium,according to the school Web site.
Alton’s family owns one of the nation’s largest home
building companies, Hovnanian Enterprises Inc.
It was founded in 1959 by Kevork S. Hovnanian and three of
his brothers, ethnic Armenians
who had come to America to escape the revolutionary
turmoil of their native Iraq.
The company has built over 100,000 homes nationwide and is
New Jersey’s largest homebuilder.
Kevork’s son Ara K. Hovnanian, the victim’s father, joined
the firm in 1979 and became presi-dent and chief executive officer in 1988, while Kevork, now 78, re-tained the title of chairman.
Members of the family control nearly 80 percent of the
stock.
The company had grown with New Jersey and subsequently
suf-fered when the real estate market went bust at the end of the 1980s.
To recover, Hovnanian expanded to other states, now
building homes in places such as the
Washington, D.C., area, North Carolina, California, Texas,
Ten-nessee, Alabama and Mississippi.
Staff writers Dennis Carmody and Sherry Figdore
contributed to this story.
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