Husband of Bloomsbury USA Exec Killed in Boat Crash Says Skipper Was Distracted by Phone

The husband of a U.S. publishing executive killed in a horrific boating accident off the coast of Italy said their skipper was distracted by his phone in the lead up to the fatal crash, according to a report. Adrienne Vaughan, 45, who was the president of Bloomsbury USA, suffered fatal injuries when the vessel carrying her and her family collided with a much larger tourist boat off the Amalfi Coast on Thursday. Elio Persico—the 30-year-old skipper of Vaughan’s boat, who was injured in the crash and found to have consumed alcohol and cocaine sometime before the incident—now faces several charges including negligent injury and culpable manslaughter. “He was always on the phone,” Mike White, Vaughan’s husband, told authorities, according to Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper. White needed surgery to his collarbone after the crash, while the couple’s children escaped the ordeal physically unharmed. In a statement Sunday, Bloomsbury CEO Nigel Newton called Vaughan’s death “a terrible blow.”

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