Death toll rises to 17 in sinking of tourist boat near Branson
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, including nine people from the same family, authorities said.
Investigators blamed stormy weather for the accident Thursday evening on Table Rock Lake near the country-and-western town of Branson. Winds at the time were blowing as hard as 65 mph, 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, and at least two were hospitalized in critical condition, officials said.
The crew member who was operating the boat died, but the captain survived, authorities said.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Mike Parson said nine of the 17 people who died are from the same family. Two other members of the same family survived when the boat overturned.
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.
“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.”
Safety advocates have sought improvements and complained that too many agencies regulate the boats with varying safety requirements. Investigators had no information about whether passengers were wearing life jackets or whether jackets were stowed onboard.
Passengers on a nearby boat described chaos on the lake as the winds picked up and the water turned rough. “Debris was flying everywhere,” Allison Lester said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Lester’s boyfriend, Trent Behr, said they saw a woman in the water and helped to pull her into the boat.
The Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader urged anyone with video or photos of the accident to contact authorities.
Weather conditions were sure to figure prominently in the investigation. The weather service issued a severe thunderstorm watch around midday Thursday, followed by a warning at 6:32 p.m., about 40 minutes before the boat tipped over.
“When we issue a warning, it means, take action,” said Kelsey Angle, a weather service meteorologist in Springfield.
Suzanne Smagala with Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ride the Ducks in Branson, said the company was assisting authorities.