Number 11 Charlotte Brown
In the winter of 2015, Jack Shepherd took Charlotte Brown on a date aboard his speedboat
for a ride on London’s River Thames. The man had met the 23-year-old on a dating website
and they’d gone for dinner at The Shard, the city’s tallest skyscraper. Afterwards,
Shepherd offered to take Brown on the speedboat which, by his admission, he’d bought to impress
women. Both drank champagne aboard and weren’t wearing life vests. At one point, the man handed
control over to Brown. Unfortunately, she hit a submerged tree trunk and the boat flipped over.
Rescue crews saved Shepherd after they’d reportedly found him clinging to the vessel. Brown
was unresponsive upon recovery and ultimately passed away due to cold-water immersion. Shepherd
maintained that he was innocent but a jury found him guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence,
in January of 2018. Shepherd missed his sentencing hearing and went on the run for several months
before ultimately turning himself in to the authorities in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital city,
more than 2,000 miles away. Number 10 Fred Titmus
In the 1960s, when England’s cricket team was touring the Caribbean,
Fred Titmus was appointed its vice-captain. During the tour, his run would come to an abrupt end
in Barbados. After arriving at the hotel, some of the cricketers went down to the beach. They then
got into the sea and swam out to a speedboat. Its engine was idle and Titmus was holding on
to the side of the boat as they chatted. What he didn’t know was that the speedboat model was
designed with its propeller underneath instead of at the back. The cricketer’s leg slipped under
and the rapidly rotating device sliced off four of his toes. He was rushed to the hospital,
where doctors performed amputations and he was only left with his big toe. The man
considered himself fortunate that it hadn’t been severed, as it would’ve thrown off his balance.
While some believed Titmus would never play again, the cricketer returned to top form in
less than a year. Number 9 Claire Glatman
While vacationing in Corfu, Greece, Claire Glatman was the victim of a brutal speedboat accident. She
was in the water when she saw the vessel rapidly approaching. The 60-year-old reportedly tried to
signal the driver but her efforts were to no avail. Glatman was struck and the propeller
inflicted lethal injuries as it cut up her body. The driver then kept going. Two boats
were seized in the aftermath and DNA samples from them were taken to Athens in order to identify the
perpetrator. The investigation is still ongoing. Number 8 Max & Tobias
Two German holidaymakers, identified as Max and Tobias, suffered horrific injuries after they
were struck by a speedboat off Es Trenc beach, in Mallorca, Spain. The two men, both in their 20s,
were testing out an underwater scooter at the time, with their boat nearby. They hadn’t put
out any buoys or signals to let others know they were in the water. A speedboat then cut
right through the men, without stopping. The vessel’s propeller severed Max’s arm
and shredded Tobias’ leg to extent that he would later need to have it amputated.
By the time emergency divers recovered Max’s arm, it was too late to have it reattached.
The men were subsequently rescued and both survived their ordeal. In the aftermath,
they stated an intention of suing the speedboat’s operators for compensation.
Number 7 Milligan Family In May of 2013, Nick and Victoria Milligan, along
with their four children, were on a speedboat trip in England’s Camel estuary. Nick was wearing a
kill cord around his leg, which enabled him to instantly turn off the vessel’s engine
in case he lost control. The man took it off as he went to the back of the boat. They’d decided to
go back to shore and Victoria took the controls, without reattaching the cord, as they were close
to the mooring. When Nick returned to take the controls, he accidentally pushed the acceleration
to the maximum while turning the steering wheel hard to the right. The boat veered sharply
and launched the family into the water. The hard impact was only the beginning of their ordeal.
The out-of-control boat, which had remained on its highest acceleration setting, made several
passes. It brutally struck the family with its propeller, as they struggled to remain together.
Nick sustained fatal injuries as did Emily, the couple’s daughter. Victoria was holding on to Kip,
the couple’s youngest, when she was hit. The woman would subsequently have part of her leg amputated.
Olivia and Amber, the remaining Milligan family members, survived with minor injuries. A water
sports instructor reached the speedboat in another vessel then stopped it by releasing
a rope and jamming its propeller. Number 6 Lake of the Ozarks Crash
In 2012, a video emerged of a speedboat accident which had occurred at Lake of the Ozarks,
in Missouri. The footage, which was captured by a GoPro camera, would eventually amass close to
20 million views on YouTube. Seven boaters were on the vessel at the time of the incident. The driver
gradually accelerated and then hit a wave at high speed. The boat turned on its side as it became
airborne and then landed hard. It was then that the passengers were thrown around like ragdolls.
The driver had no time to react as he was flung from his seat into the opposite side of the
vessel. Five of the passengers were taken to the hospital, with their injuries ranging from minor
to moderate. A punctured lung, cracked ribs, broken orbital bones, a fractured hip and a
shattered pelvis were among the reported injuries. Number 5 Daryl Kilgore & William Harper
In August of 2020, a collision near the Ripley Boat Club, in Ohio, resulted in two men missing
and several others injured. Daryl Kilgore & William Harper, both 49, were fishing on a
pontoon boat when a speedboat crashed into them. Five people in total were thrown in the water and
rescuers managed to save the three that had been aboard the speedboat. The search for Kilgore and
Harper lasted over 20 hours. The former’s body was found early next morning while Harper was
retrieved later that day. Both men had drowned. An investigation was launched to determine
what had caused the crash but initial findings suggested the speedboat’s driver had lost control.
Number 4 Giles Corbin
In July of 2017, Giles Corbin nearly lost a leg after a speedboat collided with his jet ski
in Jersey’s St. Brelade's Bay. There were 9 passengers aboard the vessel,
which was driven by 38-year-old Michael Bartlomiej Dornyek. Corbin claimed that the boat appeared
out of nowhere while the driver told a court he expected the watercraft rider to change direction.
Corbin heard screams coming from the boat as he was struck and sent flying off his jet ski.
While doctors initially told him he would need to have his left leg amputated, they were able to
reconstruct the ligaments and muscles in a 12-hour operation. A Jersey court determined that both men
had been at fault, but only Dornyek was fined. Number 3 Emily Lewis
In August of 2020, a dozen people were on a rigid inflatable boat as it crashed into a navigation
buoy, on England’s Southampton Water estuary. Passengers aren’t typically strapped in on a
rigid inflatable because, should the vessel flip over, they’d be trapped underwater. The
boats can easily reach 60 mph and, in case of a collision, passengers are thrown forward and
typically sustain crushing injuries. Simon Lewis, along with his wife, Nikki,
and their daughters, Emily and Amy, were on the vessel which was heading into the Solent strait.
Nikki and Amy both suffered broken arms in the high-speed crash while several other people
sustained minor injuries after being thrown into the water. For 16-year-old Emily, the impact was
fatal. She was left with traumatic injuries to her upper abdomen and died shortly after being
taken to the hospital. An investigation into the crash is ongoing. Navigation buoys on the
strait are immobile and tend to be quite large but conditions that day were characterized by powerful
winds and a strong tide. Still, mechanical failure and human error haven’t been ruled out.
Today's topic was requested by Bolbi Stoganofsky, Grit BlackWidowPulsar,Brandon Krystynak and A
Groovin Black Sheep. If you have any other topics you'd like to learn about, subscribe & let us know
in the comments section below. Number 2 Erik Henriksen
While testing out his new speedboat, near his home in the Cayman Islands, billionaire magnate
Erik Henriksen suffered a fatal accident. The man was driving the 1,000-horsepower vessel, which
reportedly cost around $450,000, while accompanied by his employee, Warren Weiss. Henriksen lost
control of the speedboat which started spinning violently prior to crashing in a mangrove
swamp. Its GPS later showed that the vessel had made hundreds of circles in the sea before the
crash. The men, neither of whom was wearing a life jacket, were sent flying out of the boat.
Weiss swam towards the billionaire as he thrashed around in the water. It was reported that,
prior to the accident, Henriksen had suffered two broken ribs in a wrestling match, which may have
impaired his ability to swim. However, it was also revealed that the concentration of alcohol in his
system was three times over the legal limit for driving a vehicle in the Caymans. Weiss pulled
Henriksen to shore, which he estimated took him around two hours. It was during this time that
the billionaire became unresponsive. His death was attributed to drowning and the coroner released
a verdict of misadventure. Number 1 Crash in Venice
In September of 2019, an Italian champion motorboat racer and two of his crewmen were killed
in a tragic speedboat accident. At the time, 76-year-old Fabio Buzzi was trying to set a speed
record on the route from Monte Carlo to Venice. Buzzi and his crew had traveled 1,200 miles,
in over 18 hours, and were approaching the finish line at Lido di Venezia. At a speed
of roughly 90 mph, the vessel crashed into the boulders that were part of the city’s
manmade flood barrier. It was later revealed that Buzzi had underestimated the space that
was required for his boat to enter the lagoon. The vessel flew almost 100 feet into the air before
landing on its stern, on the other side of the causeway. 3 people aboard, including Buzzi, were
killed in the high-speed impact while a fourth survived and was treated at a local hospital.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather drive a speedboat in a tsunami
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