11 Dead After Duck Boat Capsizes Near Branson, Mo.

[RhodeIslandOne]

Source: New York Times

At least 11 people were killed Thursday night when a tourist boat capsized in a southern Missouri lake as powerful thunderstorms passed through the Midwest, the authorities said.

The amphibious boat, or duck boat, overturned in Table Rock Lake near Branson, Mo., around 7 p.m. as winds exceeded 60 m.p.h.

Sheriff Doug Rader of Stone County said the duck boat sank to the bottom of the lake, and that seven passengers were taken to a hospital. Two people were in critical condition at Cox Medical Center Branson late Thursday, the hospital said.

Some of the dead were children, the sheriff said late Thursday night, and about five passengers were still missing. “We had several people who made it out safely,” he added.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/us/branson-boat-capsize-missouri.html

[Algernon Moncrieff]

1. ...

[Totally Tunsie]

2. Rest in peace.

[vercetti2021]

3. No words

poor people and little ones

[joshcryer]

4. Tragic. Could go up to 16 by morning.

Saw video from the sister boat (which thankfully didn't sink). Lots of kids on board. Just families having a nice boat ride.

[Kittycow]

6. When I watched the video of the duck boat near to sinking

I just felt sick for the people on board. I imagined myself clinging to my husband as the boat slammed up and down in the waves.

Those poor people. The kids must have been terrified. There's just no words about how bad this is.

[joshcryer]

9. Presumbably they didn't have life jackets on.

Which is tragic beyond belief. Yes it was unlucky to be in there but they had time to put life jackets on. Something went very wrong on that boat.

[Kittycow]

12. Maybe hypothermia affected them in the water?

I don't know too much about that sort of thing, though.

Some news blurb said it was a boat that the company just bought and was different than the other duck boat that made it back to shore.

The National Safety Board warned a few decades back that duck boats were prone to flooding .

[wcmagumba]

5. Very very sad...

I lived in that area for a number of years and those duck boats were everywhere...Table Rock Lake is several hundred feet deep in places making any recovery operations difficult...really feeling it for the families...

[True Blue American]

10. I know

Rode on one. Was not a comfortable feeling.

[workinclasszero]

7. So terrible

[leftyladyfrommo]

8. Table Rock is really a popular recreation

area for lots of Missourians. Lots of fishing and camping. Many people from KCMO go there on the weekends.

[beachbum bob]

11. My family have rented 40ft house boats on Table Rock twice and its no small

matter when storms blow up over the lake. We were hit by one on both occassions. Luckily my older brother is the consummate sailor and he knew how to take the winds and waves on. The fact, this boat crew was most likely unprepared to safeguard their passengers as first rule when you see any storm on open water like table rock, you have life vests immediately put on. Not saying that wasn't the case but with the high death toll lots of questions to be answered.

[samnsara]

13. how awful! I would never ride one of those duck boats...you always read of accidents.

[Dave Starsky]

15. There was a terrible crash in Seattle a couple of years ago.

An axle broke on a duck boat, causing it to careen into a tour bus on a narrow bridge. Four people were killed, and dozens more were injured.

These things are OLD (dating back to World War II), and they aren't maintained as well as they probably should be.

Of course, that probably wasn't a factor in this accident. Sounds like it was just terrible weather. Too bad they didn't have life jackets.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

18. I remember that now.

The company operating the Duck was headquartered in, of all places, Branson, Missouri.

Maker of Ride the Ducks vehicle in Seattle crash to pay up to $1 million

Originally published December 6, 2016 at 10:09 am Updated December 6, 2016 at 8:14 pm



Five people were killed and dozens injured in the 2015 crash on Seattle’s Aurora Bridge. (Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times)

Five people were killed and dozens injured in the 2015 crash on Seattle’s Aurora Bridge. Now the Missouri manufacturer of the amphibious vehicle has agreed to pay civil fines for violating federal safety rules.

By Lewis Kamb
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Missouri-based manufacturer of the amphibious Ride the Duck tour vehicle that crashed on Seattle’s Aurora Bridge last year, killing five people, has agreed to pay up to $1 million in civil fines for violating federal safety regulations, U.S. transportation officials announced Tuesday.

Ride the Ducks International (RTDI), which built Duck No. 6 that crashed in Seattle, entered into the federal consent order after admitting it failed to notify federal transportation regulators and issue a recall — as required — of its so-called “Stretch Duck” vehicles after discovering they potentially had defective front axles. ... Instead, RTDI inspected and modified the affected vehicles it still owned and issued an October 2013 service bulletin notifying independently owned licensees and other customers that had bought other vehicles subject to the repairs.

Federal investigators later found the local Ride the Ducks of Seattle firm never made the recommended repair to Duck No. 6, which lost control when its axle broke off, then plowed into a bus chartered by North Seattle College, as the vehicles motored across the Aurora Bridge in opposite directions on Sept. 24, 2015. ... The crash killed five international students riding in the bus and injured dozens of other people.

The agreement announced Tuesday requires the Branson, Mo., company to pay $480,000 in fines over the next two years, and spend $20,000 on other safety and outreach measures to ensure compliance with federal transportation safety laws. The company will owe another $500,000 if federal investigators find further violations of the agreement or of safety laws.
....

Lewis Kamb: [e-mail] or 206-464-2932. On Twitter @lewiskamb

[Major Nikon]

22. There's a lot of them in Branson

When you go there you see lots of old people riding around in them waving at everyone. I suspect half of them don't know where they are. When they inevitably sink, and there's been lots of accidents, many of the passengers are too mobility impaired to have any chance of saving themselves.

[Sancho]

14. I wear a PFD 100% of the time...

and I am on the water several times a week (here in FL).

Sometimes I get some flack, but if you get on my boat, you put on a PFD. It can be a "non-approved" one that is comfortable, but that's the rule.

Commercial boat rides should require wearing PFDs. Simple...

[Rhiannon12866]

16. This updated news story contains video (Graphic Warning):

Children among 13 killed after duck boat capsizes on Missouri lake
https://globalnews.ca/news/4342699/ride-the-ducks-boat-capsizes-branson/?utm_source=notification/

[Snellius]

21. A flat-bottom duck boat in waves like that? Hard to believe.

What a tragic accident! But in this case so many serious mistakes were made it is hard to call it an accident.

[Rhiannon12866]

24. This particular tragedy resonated with me because we had a similar "accident" around here

Several years back. A tour boat sank on Lake George, completely overloaded, with a group of senior citizens aboard. Many had walkers, etc., and they didn't stand a chance. This was also a series of bad decisions that could have been avoided.

21 Die in Sinking of Tourist Boat in Adirondacks
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/nyregion/21-die-in-sinking-of-tourist-boat-in-adirondacks.html

[Bengus81]

17. 31 people on one of those sounds like way,way to many.......

I wonder too if everyone had a LJ and if they check radar before heading out. It's a huge lake,if radar shows storms 20-40 miles away they shouldn't launch in boats like that.

[Dave Starsky]

19. Yet another triumph for dollars over safety.

Radar, shmaydar. Those tickets are 30 bucks apiece. You don't think they're going to kiss $1,000 goodbye, do you?

[Bengus81]

23. Go over to CNN and look at the radar loop for that area

This is INSANITY for either of those boats to be put out on the lake with that line of severe weather coming. I don't care if it was 50 or 75 miles away,it was going to get there.

My gawd......................

[dembotoz]

25. someone was asleep at the wheel. u assme the operators know what they are doing

my family has a place at the wisconsin dells which has duck rides as well.
been on them a number of times.....
usually a coupon, not terribly expensive, whole family can do it. kids like the idea of a car that is a boat....yada yada

The seem safe. good safety record...that being said...if the weather is shitty...i am not going on a damn boat ride where you can get splashed. just ain't gonna happen...

[joshcryer]

20. 17 dead.

[Snellius]

26. Latest on Missouri duck boat tragedy that left 17 dead

They say that they were not wearing life jackets. I thought all children on a boat like that were required to wear them at all times. Such a tragedy because it could so easily have been avoided.