Death toll from duck boat accident climbs to 17
BRANSON, Mo. — Divers found four more bodies Friday in a Missouri lake where a duck boat packed with tourists capsized and sank in high winds, bringing the death toll to 17 in the country-and-western town of Branson, authorities said.
Investigators blamed stormy weather for the accident Thursday evening on Table Rock Lake. Winds at the time were blowing as hard as 65 mph (105 kph), according to the National Weather Service.
The boat was carrying 29 passengers and two crew members on a pleasure cruise, and authorities said everyone aboard had been accounted for.
Seven of the 14 survivors were hurt when the vessel went down. At least two were hospitalized in critical condition.
The crew member who was operating the boat died, but the captain survived, authorities said.
Named for their ability to travel on land and in water, duck boats have been involved in other serious accidents in the past, including the deaths of more than 40 people since 1999.
Five college students were killed in 2015 in Seattle when a duck boat collided with a bus. Thirteen people died in 1999 when a boat sank near Hot Springs, Arkansas.
“Duck boats are death traps,” said Andrew Duffy, an attorney whose Philadelphia law firm handled litigation related to two fatal duck boat accidents there. “They’re not fit for water or land because they are half car and half boat.”
The boats were originally designed for the military, specifically to transport troops and supplies in World War II. They were later modified for use as sightseeing vehicles.
Divers located the vessel, which came to rest on its wheels on the lakebed, and authorities planned to recover it Friday.
The boat sank in 40 feet (12 metres) of water and then rolled on its wheels into a deeper area with 80 feet (25 metres) of water. Investigators had no information about whether passengers were wearing life jackets or whether they were stowed onboard, the sheriff said.
Suzanne Smagala with Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ride the Ducks in Branson, said this was the ride’s only accident in more than 40 years of operation.