Adrienne Vaughan, the 45-year-old president of the US branch of the Bloomsbury publishing house, has been killed after a collision between a speedboat and a 45-metre sailboat on Italy’s Amalfi coast.

Vaughan was on holiday in Italy with her husband and two children when the collision happened on Thursday.

The family, from New York, had rented out a 9-metre speedboat in the village of Nerano, south of Naples, when the vessel collided with a 45-metre sailboat. The second vessel, named Tortuga, was carrying about 85 people who were celebrating a wedding.

Vaughan reportedly fell overboard in the collision and was fatally struck by the boat’s propeller.

When emergency services arrived at about 7pm local time she had already died, according to reports.

Vaughan’s husband, who suffered injuries to his limbs, was taken to hospital in Ravello, alongside the two children, a 12-year-old girl and eight-year-old boy, who were not physically harmed but reportedly in shock.

The incident was reported in the evening, but Vaughan’s body had not been officially identified until Friday morning.

It was not immediately clear why the speedboat Vaughan and her family were on collided with the sailboat. Italian prosecutors in Salerno have launched an investigation into her death. Witnesses were questioned by the investigators.

The 30-year-old skipper of the speedboat suffered a broken pelvis and ribs, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

A blood test for the skipper tested positive, ANSA reported, but it did not say whether the result indicated alcohol or drug consumption.

Vaughan, who had a master’s degree in business from New York University, had worked at Disney Books and Oxford University Press among other companies before joining Bloomsbury in 2020 as executive editor and COO. She was promoted to president a year later and also served on the board of the industry trade group the Association of American Publishers.

“Adrienne Vaughan was a leader of dazzling talent and infectious passion and had a deep commitment to authors and readers,” a joint statement from the association’s board chair, Julia Reidhead, and president and CEO, Maria A Pallante, said. “Most of all she was an extraordinary human being, and those of us who had the opportunity to work with her will be forever fortunate.”

In August 2022, a British man died and six people were injured when a yacht sailing near a resort in Sardinia crashed into rocks near Porto Cervo.