Lawsuit has dropped...
Lawsuit: Duck boat company ‘chose to value profits’ over safety of its passengers
Not quite two weeks after a duck boat sank during a storm and killed 17 on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Mo., a lawsuit filed in federal court alleges that the companies involved in the incident knew the boats were unsafe, knew bad weather was ahead and put profits ahead of safety.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of families of several victims in the July 19 disaster, accuses Ripley Entertainment, Ride The Ducks of Branson, Herschend Family Entertainment and other defendants of negligence, wrongful death and product liability.
A duck boat carrying 29 passengers and two Ride the Ducks employees took to the waters of Table Rock Lake on July 19 with a severe storm approaching. The storm hit the lake and battered the boat before sinking, drowning 17 of its passengers.
The lawsuit says years of warnings about the safety hazards posed by the duck boats, many of them reconstructed World War II-era vehicles that travel on land and water, were not heeded by the companies involved in the Ride The Ducks enterprise.
The lawsuit cites several prior incidents involving duck boats, recommendations the National Transportation Safety Board made to improve duck boat safety and documents by Ride The Ducks officials showing the company’s alleged reluctance to accept the NTSB’s suggestions.
Since the May 1, 1999, sinking of Miss Majestic on Lake Hamilton, Ark., that killed 13 passengers, the NTSB has urged safety upgrades on duck boats. But The Star has found that Congress and the U.S. Coast Guard have been slow to act.
In 2000, the NTSB suggested that duck boats adopt a backup buoyancy system to keep the boats from sinking; the Miss Majestic boat took up to one minute to sink after taking on water in 1999.
The lawsuit produces a letter from former Ride The Ducks president Robert McDowell responding to the NTSB’s recommendation, saying “it will require considerable feasibility, evaluation and thus expense.”
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