Attorney says duck boats should be ‘outlawed’
Amphibious passenger vehicles such as the one that capsized Thursday in Branson, Mo., are a menace on land and water, a catastrophic-injury attorney whose firm won a $17 million settlement in a wrongful death claim against a Philadelphia duck boat operator alleged Friday.
Andrew R. Duffy lamented the lack of life-safety improvements the industry has made since 13 people were killed on Lake Hamilton when the “Miss Majestic” sank in May 1999. He said hearing that 17 people had died on Table Rock Lake when the duck boat they were on overturned in rough waters unsettled him, given how previous accidents prefigured Thursday’s tragedy.
“I was horrified, and thinking why does this have to happen again?,” he said, noting that duck boat accidents have now claimed more than 40 lives in the United States and Canada. “I can’t imagine what the families are going through.”
Duffy said the National Transportation Safety Board was remiss for not prohibiting canopies on duck boats after the “Miss Majestic” canopy trapped passengers inside as it sank, explaining that engineering experts his firm used to support the wrongful death claim against a Philadelphia duck boat operator showed the boats are inherently dangerous.
Two Hungarian students visiting the country on a church-exchange program died in the 2010 accident on the Delaware River. The subsequent lawsuit was settled for $17 million.
“It’s the canopy,” Duffy said Friday. “It’s compounded because the NTSB didn’t prohibit them after the 1999 Hot Springs disaster. They also have limited buoyancy. Once they become flooded, they don’t stay afloat like most boats.
“They sit low to the water, and once they take on water, they sink quickly. That is a recipe for disaster.”
They are also a danger on land, he said, as his firm is representing the family of a Texas woman who died in 2015 after being run over by a duck boat in Philadelphia.
“The hull blocks out the operator’s view,” he said. “It leaves a big blind spot. Both in Philadelphia and Boston operators testified that they didn’t see people who they ran over and killed.”
Duffy has called for an absolute prohibition on the use of the World War II-military vehicles, saying that their adaptation to civilian purposes has had tragic consequences.
“I think they’re designed to storm the beaches of Normandy,” he said. “They’re military vehicles not designed with safety in mind. The canopies and blind spots make them unsafe for both water and land, and they should be completely outlawed.”
U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Alana Miller said Friday there were 118 U.S. flagged amphibious passenger vehicles with valid certificates of inspection as of January. Certificates list requirements or prohibitions specific to each vehicle, she said, but a minimum of 12 inches of free board, or distance between the water line and deck, is generally required.
The Roberts family holds all three duck boat tour-related sightseeing permits the city of Hot Springs has issued. They are permitted to operate 13 vehicles but only have five in operation, city officials said Friday.
The city’s transportation code requires they be inspected for street readiness annually by the Hot Springs Police Department. Their lake worthiness is assessed by the U.S. Coast Guard, they said.
“Our hearts go out to the victims of the Branson duck boat tragedy,” Interim City Manager Bill Burrough said Friday. “It brings up memories of a similar tragedy that occurred in our community in 1999. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and public safety officers involved in this terrible tragedy.”