Speedboat Driver Crashes Ashore Injuring 24 Spectators

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• published: 05 Nov 2016
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1988 A speedboat driver who crashed ashore injuring 24 spectators will not be charged after an investigator determined wind and wakes on the river -- not negligence -- caused the accident, police said Thursday. City authorities hired marine surveyor John Colletti to investigate why the speedboat suddenly veered off course Sunday in the Allegheny River during the Three Rivers Regatta Formula One race and plowed into an onshore crowd. ADVERTISING Colletti said wakes and wind produced rough river conditions and 'confused waves,' a situation similar to what is found at sea. Authorities initially believed the boat had caromed off an object in the water. Colletti said the speedboat driven by Robert Wood, 23, of Peterborough, Ontario, hit another boat's wake, which forced the craft up on its right side. The speedboat hit a second wake, which forced the boat's nose to dip underwater, causing a sharp right turn out of the race course and toward spectators, he said. The rough conditions caused 'the boat to veer violently to the right and make her uncontrollable for approximately 2 seconds,' Colletti reported. 'There was no fault on the part of the driver, no mechanical or structural fault of the boat,' he said. 'The boat did not hit anything. There's no way whether we could tell in the future if something like this would happen again. It's as unpredictable as lighting. It could happen again.' 'He is cleared,' police Sgt. John O'Connor said of Wood. 'The driver will not be charged. Even if the little boy (7-year-old James Herrmann Jr.) would die, the driver would not be charged.' Also injured were the boy's father, 3-year-old sister and 21 others. Wood himself could not be reached for comment Thursday. Angie Gremer, Wood's common-law wife, said in a telephone interview she would not comment on Colletti's findings. But she said, 'We're just glad that nobody has died and we pray for all the families to bring everybody through okay.'