The wife of a former Ilkley construction boss suffered a collapsed lung and broken ribs in a pleasure boat accident at Florida’s Disney World resort.

An investigation is under way after Barbara Joan Wormald, 61, of Skipton, was injured when the boat collided with and went under a ferry near the Disney Treetop Villas, according to US sources.

Mrs Wormald, who is known by her middle name, was crushed between a ferry and the small boat in the incident on April 22, a report by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.

It is understood that she and husband Mike, a 61-year-old former boss of Burley Developments Ltd, had hired a small boat and were making their way through the resort waterways when the accident happened.

Mr Wormald was reported as having told a sheriff’s deputy that he turned to the right too late to avoid the ferry. Ferry captain William Green told police he had put the ferry in reverse when it crashed into the boat.

A witness statement in the accident report released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said Mr Wormald himself was not injured. It was reported that Mr Wormald told how the ferry ‘ran up onto the passenger side of the small boat’, hit Mrs Wormald and ran over her.

Mr Wormald, is listed with Companies House as a director of Burley Developments Ltd, of Wells Walk.

A Disney World spokesman said the matter was “still under investigation” by US police and was unable to comment. Mr and Mrs Wormald have a house in Celebration, Florida.

Their son, accountant John Wormald, is married to Julia Haworth who plays Claire Peacock in TV soap Coronation Street.