The cabin cruiser was laden with young joyriders, which was collided with a fishing boat in Sydney’s harbour. The U.S. Consulate named one of the victims as 25-year-old Jessica Savanna Holloway. According to the officials Holloway was hailed from Texas and was working as a youth worker in Australia. The officials told that four others were killed in the collision shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday, and another died later in a hospital. Eight others were injured. Apart from Holloway, all were Australians.
The injured were treated at the Royal North Shore Hospital. Dr. Ray Raper, head of intensive care at the hospital informed that the sixth victim died from severe head injuries he suffered in the collision. All of the dead and injured were aged in their late teens and early 30s. According to the witness the group took the boat out for a late-night tour of the harbor after drinking at a hotel in the harborside suburb of Balmain.
According to the police the collision occurred near Bradley’s Head in a favored sightseeing area of the harbor, home to Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge landmarks. Once a bustling commercial port, the harbor is now dominated by pleasure craft, passenger ferries and cruise ships. Police and witness descriptions of the two boats’ activities before the crash suggest the two vessels were heading toward each other, with the fishing vessel heading away from downtown and the cruiser heading toward it.
