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MO duck boat tragedy


sassenach
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I wonder if they were wearing them but just couldn’t get out of the boat. The dimensions of the windows and layout look like it would be tough to get 30 people out of. The report says 4 missing, which leads me to believe that a whole lot of people may have drowned with vests on. 

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I can see why it has that feeling of spectators. In the video I watched, there is a female voice saying "Aww" and "Oh no."

I hope they were wearing life vests but it would seem more people would have made it then. The mind boggling thing is that it seems close to shore...

I have never seen or heard about a "Duck Boat" before but it looks overloaded to me and very low in the water though I realize that in perfectly calm conditions, it would likely not matter. Water rescues are often difficult.

What a tragedy.

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I've only ever been on one Duck Boat ride, so I don't know if they're all the same. The one we were on didn't have windows. The sides were wide open except for some supports. IIRC there was plastic sheeting or something similar that could get lowered in rainy conditions.

I don't understand why it was out in the first place. Surely they knew bad weather was approaching?

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9 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I've only ever been on one Duck Boat ride, so I don't know if they're all the same. The one we were on didn't have windows. The sides were wide open except for some supports. IIRC there was plastic sheeting or something similar that could get lowered in rainy conditions.

I don't understand why it was out in the first place. Surely they knew bad weather was approaching?

There was a thunderstorm watch all day. By the time it was upgraded to a warning, the wind was whipping things up badly. 

All passengers are now accounted for. 17 dead, 14 injured.

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5 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I've only ever been on one Duck Boat ride, so I don't know if they're all the same. The one we were on didn't have windows. The sides were wide open except for some supports. IIRC there was plastic sheeting or something similar that could get lowered in rainy conditions.

I don't understand why it was out in the first place. Surely they knew bad weather was approaching?

I am unclear of the timeline of the storms.  They say the severe weather warning seems to have been issued after the accident. But as a general safety measure no matter what season or where, you should always know what weather forecasts are before figuring out if your planned activities are a go.  We are hundreds of miles away and we had advanced warnings that bad weather, in general, was going to be happening in the late afternoon/evening in that area on my local news which shows a large map in order for the meteorologist to explain what we would be getting this evening and into our early morning today.  You make your choices as to whether you want to be on a boat or lakeside when big summer storms are coming.  But that weather awareness would help so many other horrendous tragedies too.

And specifically, here, our weather people are warning not to be afraid but to be aware and make sure your weather radio is on and have a secondary means of alerting you tonight because our worse is supposed to be somewhere between around 10 pm to 3 am.

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4 minutes ago, scholastica said:

There was a thunderstorm watch all day. By the time it was upgraded to a warning, the wind was whipping things up badly. 

All passengers are now accounted for. 17 dead, 14 injured.

But there are services for tracking weather. Shoot, all the Little Leagues around here know well in advance when bad weather's coming. They often clear the fields before the wind gets up or thunder is heard.

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That is so awful and sad.

My concern with boats for hire is that they may err on the side of going on the water when the weather is iffy because they have paying customers.

We once booked a whale watching tour and we trusted them that the weather was okay.  It was not okay.  It was a very scary ordeal.  I think they went out because it was a full tour.

 

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23 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

But there are services for tracking weather. Shoot, all the Little Leagues around here know well in advance when bad weather's coming. They often clear the fields before the wind gets up or thunder is heard.

And as I said- Everyone should be weather aware.  Which includes hikers in deserts, families going to the beach, couples deciding to take romantic sunset cruise around someplace, people schlepping around cities.  Whether it is extreme heat or unexpected cold, storms of any variety, warnings that electricity may be cut, etc.  Evaluate and make your own decision and do not just rely on the boat operator or whoever to be as aware as you are.

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3 hours ago, Thatboyofmine said:

We went on the one in Philly a month before the sinking there.  I think two people died and iirc, they shut the Philly one down.  I'm kind of surprised they're still operational after that accident, especially the river ones.   I think we wore life jackets but I'm really not sure.  

In This latest incident, weather looked bad and I think some passengers said they got a refund and refused to go out on the tour, so the operators must've had warning. I think people probably couldn't get out of the windows.  I saw a pic and it looked like they had plastic up for the rain so maybe that hampered escape.   It's incredibly tragic.  I think it's time to close up shop. 

 

Or provide tours in a better suited vessel and mandate life vests.

Life vests can be bulky even though the newer ones are almost comfortable. We wear them all the time while we are on boats or kayaks.

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Nine of the people killed were from the same family. They probably didn't have time to get clear of the boat. So sad. I have fond memories of riding the Duck ride in the Wisconsin Dells. It was thrilling as a kid to drive into the water. I'm sure we didn't wear life vests.

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1 minute ago, Thatboyofmine said:

Wow!!  I thought it was a river!  Good grief, that water was really rough.  I automatically thought river because of the waves.  

I think this is exactly the source of the problem.  This is one of several a man made reservoirs in the state. Usually, these lakes are very calm. People probably cannot imagine waves this wild on a body of water they have only ever seen placid. I surely couldn't, even though intellectually I know it can happen. But the lake feels completely benign.

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12 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I think this is exactly the source of the problem.  This is one of several a man made reservoirs in the state. Usually, these lakes are very calm. People probably cannot imagine waves this wild on a body of water they have only ever seen placid. I surely couldn't, even though intellectually I know it can happen. But the lake feels completely benign.

I haven't watched any of the video. I just can't. But when somebody told me about it this morning, I kept saying, "Table Rock? This happened at Table Rock? How?!" It's just really hard to imagine how that could happen there, where the water is normally so still.

I've "ridden the ducks" twice in different locations - once in the Ozarks and once in the Dells. No life vests either time, once in pretty rainy weather.

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I've been on this ride, it's normally very calm waters on a lake .  I would not have went in this weather, but recently there have been lots of random showers.  It may storm 20 minutes and the rest of the day is beautiful.  They don't really even go thar far out into the lake iirc.  Regardless,  the operator shouldnt have gone in if the waters were thst rough, but it's hard to say what they looked like even 10 minutes before.

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10 minutes ago, Liz CA said:

I am still chewing on the fact that so many people could not swim to shore. Were they trapped? Could they not swim? Panic?

Have you seen the video? I think many people who "can" swim in a pool would have trouble swimming in waves like that.

Also, there were infants and old folks among the fatalities.

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Here in Colombia, several years ago, we had a tragedy like that, but in that case it was a real boat, that they had built onto, vertically, so it could hold more passengers. I don't remember how many fatalities there were. It was on a lake near the city of Medellin.  It was overloaded and the center of gravity (CG) was very high. 

In this case, they refer to it as a boat, but it is really an Amphibious vehicle.  And the people were probably packed into it, like Sardines.  Even if they all had life vests on, they were probably trapped and unable to escape.

Some authority should license those rides that take innocent tourists. In the USA it  would seem to be the U.S. Coast Guard or the Missouri Highway Patrol or another state agency in charge of licensing boats and other things that operate on lakes. Especially things that take innocent passengers who are paying them.

Very sad.

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29 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Have you seen the video? I think many people who "can" swim in a pool would have trouble swimming in waves like that.

Also, there were infants and old folks among the fatalities.

 

I know about the children and I know that chaos / panic happens having been involved in water rescues before. In my experience, people do try at least, however, if so many children and elderly were unable to swim, many may have tried to rescue and perished in the process.

Also, several people here familiar with this type of vessel have commented that some kind of fiberglass or plastic sheeting is part of the construction. Perhaps people were not able to get out as sinking happens fast

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17 minutes ago, Lanny said:

Here in Colombia, several years ago, we had a tragedy like that, but in that case it was a real boat, that they had built onto, vertically, so it could hold more passengers. I don't remember how many fatalities there were. It was on a lake near the city of Medellin.  It was overloaded and the center of gravity (CG) was very high. 

In this case, they refer to it as a boat, but it is really an Amphibious vehicle.  And the people were probably packed into it, like Sardines.  Even if they all had life vests on, they were probably trapped and unable to escape.

Some authority should license those rides that take innocent tourists. In the USA it  would seem to be the U.S. Coast Guard or the Missouri Highway Patrol or another state agency in charge of licensing boats and other things that operate on lakes. Especially things that take innocent passengers who are paying them.

Very sad.

 

Regarding the overloaded / top heavy issue; this happens a lot with cargo and paying passengers because of greed versus safety considerations.

Second and third bolded part: I think this is what must have contributed to the high number of casualties.

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7 hours ago, sassenach said:

 I just don’t understand why no one was calling for help. It’s like a restaurant full of people just watching this happen. 

From everything I've read people were calling for help and people were helping. Regular people were doing what they could as were emergency workers. The woman who took the video that's going around said the captain of her boat was getting his crew into life jackets so they could try and get out there and help. The video at this link also includes the emergency call. It seems to have all just happened too quickly for anyone to be able to do as much as they hoped.

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/duck-boat-crash-missouri/index.html

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7 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

But there are services for tracking weather. Shoot, all the Little Leagues around here know well in advance when bad weather's coming. They often clear the fields before the wind gets up or thunder is heard.

In my circles, people don't take weather seriously.  I have, on more than one occasion, pulled my own kids off of fields b/c coaches and umps refused to call it in thunder, sometimes not even in "distant" lightning.  It does not surprise me that a business wouldn't want to shut down with all-day watches.  I don't condone it, but it doesn't surprise me.

(I'm considered the weather freak around here.)

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12 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

In my circles, people don't take weather seriously.  I have, on more than one occasion, pulled my own kids off of fields b/c coaches and umps refused to call it in thunder, sometimes not even in "distant" lightning.  It does not surprise me that a business wouldn't want to shut down with all-day watches.  I don't condone it, but it doesn't surprise me.

(I'm considered the weather freak around here.)

Same here! I can't believe how cavalier people are about having kids out on the field when it's lightning like crazy.

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4 hours ago, Liz CA said:

 

Or provide tours in a better suited vessel and mandate life vests.

Life vests can be bulky even though the newer ones are almost comfortable. We wear them all the time while we are on boats or kayaks.

There are new technology life vests that only inflate when they are in water.  I'm not sure how it works but surely that would be an option?  I know they are more expensive.

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I've done the ride by the same company with the same vehicles in our area multiple times. Here they require kids to wear life jackets but point to the vests in  racks above the seats during the safety briefing, as well as tell you to jump out the windows in case of emergency on the water. The seats are a lot like school bus seats and similarly spaced. I think they are relatively conservative about cancelling rides due to weather, but in not sure in the policy. I know today they suspended the rides until they get the results of the investigation to come in Missouri.

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2 hours ago, Lanny said:

Here in Colombia, several years ago, we had a tragedy like that, but in that case it was a real boat, that they had built onto, vertically, so it could hold more passengers. I don't remember how many fatalities there were. It was on a lake near the city of Medellin.  It was overloaded and the center of gravity (CG) was very high. 

In this case, they refer to it as a boat, but it is really an Amphibious vehicle.  And the people were probably packed into it, like Sardines.  Even if they all had life vests on, they were probably trapped and unable to escape.

Some authority should license those rides that take innocent tourists. In the USA it  would seem to be the U.S. Coast Guard or the Missouri Highway Patrol or another state agency in charge of licensing boats and other things that operate on lakes. Especially things that take innocent passengers who are paying them.

Very sad.

That sounds similar to a tragedy in the Adirondack mountains in NY. They added a roof onto an open air boat and never adjusted for the weight. The roof added so much weight that only about 14 passengers should have safely been on board but instead there were nearly 50.

20 people, mostly senior citizens on a fall foliage cruise, drowned when it capsized in a beautiful, fair day.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a953/4199636/

 

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I'm not sure what the person who took the video could have been reasonably expected to do. They knew that emergency services had been called. It's great if you can be a hero and have the right skills and will to do that. But the article mentioned an off duty sheriff's dept guy heading out to help and I half expected to hear he'd been injured too. In water like that, you can easily be killed without the right training and equipment. Like, for every time that an immigrant "spider-man" can safely scale a building to rescue a baby or a group of people can form a human chain to stop the tide from sweeping people away (that was last summer, right?), there's going to be instances where there's not much bystanders can do other can call in the pros. And if the head in, they could die too. ? 

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I read something about how, due to the boat's canopy, people would have been pinned underwater (against the canopy) wearing the vests. And they would have drowned without the vests. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The best bet would have been to jump off as early as possible with a vest, but in the situation, without proper forceful instruction from the staff, no one knew what to do. It's not like it's a situation people encounter often, and I think it's natural for a tourist to trust the staff to keep them safe in situations like this.

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I’ve been on one twice and both times they didn’t pass out life vests. I’m an extremely poor swimmer so I was really nervous. 

On another small biar excursion I was the only one to request vests for me and my kids and the general consensus was that I was extreme. 

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11 minutes ago, cuckoomamma said:

I’ve been on one twice and both times they didn’t pass out life vests. I’m an extremely poor swimmer so I was really nervous. 

On another small biar excursion I was the only one to request vests for me and my kids and the general consensus was that I was extreme. 

 

You did the right thing - let general consensus be whatever. Swimming ability and being comfortable in water varies widely. You should be offered a simple thing like a life vest even if it's just helping you to enjoy the outing more and be less anxious.

When I was younger, I scoffed at wearing life vests; they were bulky and restrictive and I "knew" I could swim. Well, I can still can swim but I am now wearing a life vest even while flat water kayaking and always when on the ocean or during choppy lake weather in our little boat as well. Life vests have come a long way and are more comfortable now.

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These boats were designed for the D day invasion and similar amphibious assaults.  Seaworthiness was not the top priority.  When the armor was removed the seaworthiness suffered IIRC.  The NTSB report that OH homeschooler mentioned also recommended adding bouyancy to any of these tour boats in operation, so the boat still floats if it fills with water.  That's not that hard to do with a relatively small boat, nearly any smaller recreational boat will not sink unless it breaks apart and looses the foam floatation. 

This seems like a case of something that has been culturally grandfathered, but hasn't kept up with today's safety expectations, by a long shot. 

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I've never been on one before, but honestly after reading about this tragedy, I can't imagine I ever will. I wonder if this will lead to them being shut down or if we're just too bogged down in political standstill for anything to get accomplished these days. It seems like the sort of incident that would lead to them being dramatically more regulated.

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They have these near us. I’ve been wanting to go on it and just mentioned to dh that it is something to do some summer afternoon. Actually just mentioned it to him earlier this week. 

But I can’t imagine ever doing it now. Just reading the different past accidents is too much. I tend to be someone that is trusting with these touristy things. I don’t think too hard assuming they are safe and regulated and the odds of a mishap are so very low. But I am getting more skittish all the time.

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I am so heartbroken reading the interviews with a survivor who lost 9 family members, including her husband and 3 children.  She stated that prior to the tour, they were shown the life vests, but told they wouldn't need them, so they did not put them on.  I also read that the tour operator changed the schedule and went on water first, rather then land first and water last, after hearing that storms would be arriving.  So it seems they were trying to get in and out of the water before the weather rolled in, but it came in faster than anticipated.

We had a horrible tragedy with these boats in Philadelphia years ago, and as a result none of us have ever taken them.  I am, honestly, shocked they are still in operation.  

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I know so many people say "why are these still in use" but the reality of the matter is the overall rate of problems is very low. I'm currently in Branson and they have about 20 boats sitting in their lots. Most years there is only 3-4 in the lot during business hours. The rest are out and about without problems. Yes this is a horrible tragedy but considering the number of hours those vehicles are used this represents a very tiny portion of their trips.  Do we ban all charter buses because of what happened to the Humboldt Broncos team?  Or any other mode of transportation because of the problems that happen there.  Yes look into and see what can be done to make it safer but outright banning them seems overkill on my opinion. Everything we do carries risk I don't see the ducks as being any riskier than many other things we do everyday without thought.

 

As a complete side note one of their family members is on a missions trip to Australia and is trying to get home. My son just got back from a similar trip last week.  I'm just so sad for this young man who probably has been anticipating this trip for months and now having to leave the group and try to get back. (Yes I'm sad for the rest of the family but this young man's plight just hits really close to home)

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1 hour ago, cjzimmer1 said:

I know so many people say "why are these still in use" but the reality of the matter is the overall rate of problems is very low. I'm currently in Branson and they have about 20 boats sitting in their lots. Most years there is only 3-4 in the lot during business hours. The rest are out and about without problems. Yes this is a horrible tragedy but considering the number of hours those vehicles are used this represents a very tiny portion of their trips.  Do we ban all charter buses because of what happened to the Humboldt Broncos team?  Or any other mode of transportation because of the problems that happen there.  Yes look into and see what can be done to make it safer but outright banning them seems overkill on my opinion. Everything we do carries risk I don't see the ducks as being any riskier than many other things we do everyday without thought.

 

As a complete side note one of their family members is on a missions trip to Australia and is trying to get home. My son just got back from a similar trip last week.  I'm just so sad for this young man who probably has been anticipating this trip for months and now having to leave the group and try to get back. (Yes I'm sad for the rest of the family but this young man's plight just hits really close to home)

 

I don't think anybody will  ban river / lake tours, however, making them as safe as possible is necessary. Seems like there was no exit plan in place for something like this. I suppose I am not used to seeing them and the rivers and lakes here have different requirements. Somehow, they looked dodgy to me as in not very safe and adequately equipped to be a touring boat.

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5 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

I know so many people say "why are these still in use" but the reality of the matter is the overall rate of problems is very low. I'm currently in Branson and they have about 20 boats sitting in their lots. Most years there is only 3-4 in the lot during business hours. The rest are out and about without problems. Yes this is a horrible tragedy but considering the number of hours those vehicles are used this represents a very tiny portion of their trips.  Do we ban all charter buses because of what happened to the Humboldt Broncos team?  Or any other mode of transportation because of the problems that happen there.  Yes look into and see what can be done to make it safer but outright banning them seems overkill on my opinion. Everything we do carries risk I don't see the ducks as being any riskier than many other things we do everyday without thought.

 

As a complete side note one of their family members is on a missions trip to Australia and is trying to get home. My son just got back from a similar trip last week.  I'm just so sad for this young man who probably has been anticipating this trip for months and now having to leave the group and try to get back. (Yes I'm sad for the rest of the family but this young man's plight just hits really close to home)

I think the question is that there are some minimum safety standards that they seem to be in a loophole for because they are not entirely a vehicle or a boat. One of the articles indicated that they fall into some middle ground where they’re not being as tightly regulated. 

The question in my mind is how would a boat of similar size have faired? I’m going to guess much better. And the fact that the crew didn’t pass out life vests is inexcusable. 

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I just read this article (Sunday, 22 July 2018) and I am both sad and mad.   Innocent people are dead because of the greed and negligence of the company and operator.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/22/branson-duck-boat-operator-was-warned-in-2017-dangers-inspector-says.html

The previous thing I had read, was that the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) an organization I have tremendous respect for, is trying to find out what the company did with the information they received from the Weather Service they paid for. There were winds of near-Hurricane Force (73 MPH).  I believe that was at the time of launch, but am not sure of that as I write this.

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5 hours ago, Liz CA said:

 

I don't think anybody will  ban river / lake tours, however, making them as safe as possible is necessary. Seems like there was no exit plan in place for something like this. I suppose I am not used to seeing them and the rivers and lakes here have different requirements. Somehow, they looked dodgy to me as in not very safe and adequately equipped to be a touring boat.

 

44 minutes ago, sassenach said:

I think the question is that there are some minimum safety standards that they seem to be in a loophole for because they are not entirely a vehicle or a boat. One of the articles indicated that they fall into some middle ground where they’re not being as tightly regulated. 

The question in my mind is how would a boat of similar size have faired? I’m going to guess much better. And the fact that the crew didn’t pass out life vests is inexcusable. 

The NTSB made recommendations for safety standards back in the early 2000s. The NTSB can do nothing more than make recommendations, which they did. Those who had the power to actually make changes did nothing. (and I don't know who that is - Congress? Department/Bureau of something-or-other? The DOT?) Mostly it's been left to the states and they've done little to nothing. 

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18 minutes ago, Lady Florida. said:

 

The NTSB made recommendations for safety standards back in the early 2000s. The NTSB can do nothing more than make recommendations, which they did. Those who had the power to actually make changes did nothing. (and I don't know who that is - Congress? Department/Bureau of something-or-other? The DOT?) Mostly it's been left to the states and they've done little to nothing. 

 

I read this as well. In a previous post I voiced surprise that not more people were able to swim to shore but now I am beginning to understand that they were trapped under that blasted canopy which evidently can be released but was not released on time. Such a tragedy...and it seems it may have been preventable which makes it always worse but who knows.

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