• last year
7-year-old Julianne Rosela of Chester, Maryland, died when a powerboat taking part in the annual Thunder on the Narrows race collided with several spectator boats.

The accident occurred around 17h00 on Sunday, 28 June 2015, when the 21-foot hydro racing vessel called "This Is Heaven", driven by Philip Justus Mitchell, went out of control, going straight into three spectator boats that were rafted together with a larger group of 12 boats along the race course, instead of making an expected turn.

The young girl Julianne Rosela, who was watching the races with her family, was taken to the University of Maryland Shore Emergency Center at Queenstown and then was transferred to Queen Anne’s Medical Center in Chester, Kent Island, Maryland, where she was pronounced dead.

At least seven other spectators were injured in the crash, three of them seriously. Robbie Root, 35, of Chester, and Jennifer Browning, 34, of Stevensville, were flown by helicopter to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore and Michelle Thomas, 40, of Chester was taken by local EMS units to Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis.

This was the 25th edition of the annual race organised by the Kent Narrows Racing Association, one of the biggest hydroplane races on the East Coast. The event was held at the Kent Island Yacht Club, just south of the Kent Narrows, a waterway that separates Kent Island from the Delmarva Peninsula.

R.I.P

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