A 55-year-old man was arrested for allegedly boating under the influence and crashing his vessel in a Beaufort County waterway over Memorial Day weekend. A passenger in the boat received a “severe head injury” and was airlifted to the hospital, according to police.
William Edward Peebles, of Beaufort, was charged the morning of May 23 with BUI resulting in great bodily injury, according to inmate records. The reported severe injuries upgrade the charge to a felony under South Carolina law.
The crash occurred as Peebles was operating a boat “in the nighttime hours” of May 22 on Chowan Creek, an offshoot of the Beaufort River that runs between Cat Island and southwest St. Helena Island, his arrest warrant says…