Grand Prix Power boat driver killed at Mulwala
by Powerboat-world.com on 28 Nov 2010
John Cross flying aboard Miscreant Theo Spykers
The powerboat community is mourning the death of one of its leading racers, who has died after a high-speed powerboat crash at the World Grand Prix Championships at Lake Mulwala near Yarrawonga in Victoria's northeast yesterday.
Shortly after 11am, on Sunday morning, 47 year old John Cross from Mount Martha, south of Melbourne was driving the B.A.D. boat Rival in the final of the Marj Watson event.
John spun out on the first corner and when he recovered he was at the back of the field. Over the next four laps he drove very, very hard and eventually made it to third. The crash occurred as Rival crossed the finish line.
His boat became airborne, flipped twice and crashed into the water, in front of a horrified crowd of 5,000 fans.
In the accident John was thrown clear and his parachute deployed. He came out of the boat ‘clean’ but obviously Rival was running very fast in the 120 – 130 MPH region.
The boat sunk immediately and John was floating on the water face down, but his helmet had been ripped off.
Crash crews attended very quickly and he was transferred to shore where he was worked on by the bank for quite some time before being placed in an ambulance.
He was taken to the Yarrawonga Hospital but died about 3pm while being transferred to an air ambulance to be flown to The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.
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