Current:Home > NewsU.S. publishing boss Adrienne Vaughan killed in "terrible" speedboat crash in Italy -Global Finance Compass
U.S. publishing boss Adrienne Vaughan killed in "terrible" speedboat crash in Italy
View
Date:2025-04-18 14:43:35
U.S. publishing executive Adrienne Vaughan has died in a horrific boating accident off Italy's Amalfi Coast, her company said Friday.
Vaughan, 45, was president of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc., publisher of the Harry Potter series.
"Adrienne Vaughan was a leader of dazzling talent and infectious passion and had a deep commitment to authors and readers," said the association's board chair, Julia Reidhead, and its president and CEO, Maria A. Pallante, in a joint statement. "Most of all she was an extraordinary human being, and those of us who had the opportunity to work with her will be forever fortunate."
The rented motorboat Vaughan and her family were on during a vacation to the popular tourist destination crashed into a sailboat Thursday, Italian state TV said, knocking her into the water, where according to witnesses she was struck repeatedly by the motorboat's propeller.
A video of the incident published by the New York Post showed guests on the sailboat partying at the moment the speedboat hit, with one woman asking, "What happened?"
"This boat, it collided with us," a man responds frantically, before running across the deck.
Moments later, another man looks over the edge: "Jesus Christ," he says. "She needs help," says another guest.
"The sailboat was going straight ahead and so was the [motor]boat," Pietro Iuzzolino, a barman who at the moment of impact was making cocktails aboard the sailboat, told Italian newspaper Corriere del Mezzogiorno. "Then suddenly [the motorboat] veered 180 degrees: there was a collision and I heard a very loud bang.
"I saw the woman in the water being held up by her children and her husband: she didn't have an arm and the nape of her neck was white, as if blood was not flowing. It was terrible."
Vaughan was pulled out of the water and brought to a dock but died by the time a helicopter ambulance arrived, state TV said.
The Italian coast guard office in Amalfi is investigating the crash. A call to its office wasn't answered, nor was there a response to an emailed request to the Coast Guard for details.
The victim's husband was hospitalized with a shoulder injury while the couple's two young children were uninjured, according to the reports.
No one aboard the sailboat, which had more than 80 U.S. and German tourists and the crew members on board, was injured.
A blood test for the skipper of the motorboat tested positive for substance use, reported Italian news agency ANSA, which didn't indicate whether the result indicated alcohol or drug consumption.
Sailboat barman Iuzzolino said the skipper was "vomiting", adding "we got the impression he was drunk."
The skipper, an Italian about 30 years old, suffered a broken pelvis and ribs, ANSA said.
There was no answer at the courthouse in the southern of port city of Salerno, where prosecutors are overseeing the investigation.
When the motorboat crashed, it had been headed to Positano, one of the most popular destinations along the Amalfi Coast, Italian media said.
- In:
- Boating Accident
- Italy
- Boat Accident
veryGood! (81584)
Related
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- 5 Things podcast: US spy planes search for hostages in Gaza
- Why one survivor of domestic violence wants the Supreme Court to uphold a gun control law
- How Midwest Landowners Helped to Derail One of the Biggest CO2 Pipelines Ever Proposed
- Sam Taylor
- A 'trash audit' can help you cut down waste at home. Here's how to do it
- Tupac Shakur Way: Oakland street named in rapper's honor, 27 years after his death
- Washington's Zion Tupuola-Fetui has emotional moment talking about his dad after USC win
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Hi Hi!
- Man arrested in slaying of woman found decapitated in Northern California home, police say
Ranking
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
- I can't help but follow graphic images from Israel-Hamas war. I should know better.
- How Midwest Landowners Helped to Derail One of the Biggest CO2 Pipelines Ever Proposed
- Washington's Zion Tupuola-Fetui has emotional moment talking about his dad after USC win
- Rylee Arnold Shares a Long
- US regulators to review car-tire chemical deadly to salmon after request from West Coast tribes
- Hungary has fired the national museum director over LGBTQ+ content in World Press Photo exhibition
- Colleges reporting surges in attacks on Jewish, Muslim students as war rages on
Recommendation
Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
Yellen to host Chinese vice premier for talks in San Francisco ahead of start of APEC summit
4 men charged in theft of golden toilet from Churchill’s birthplace. It’s an artwork titled America
Tuberculosis cases linked to California Grand Casino, customers asked to get tested
Biden administration makes final diplomatic push for stability across a turbulent Mideast
US orders Puerto Rico drug distribution company to pay $12 million in opioid case
War took a Gaza doctor's car. Now he uses a bike to get to patients, sometimes carrying it over rubble.
Denver police investigate shooting that killed 2, injured 5 at a private after-hours biker bar