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Posted on 22 July 2018, 11:46 AM
By The Associated Press
A private inspector said Saturday that he warned the company operating duck boats on a lake in Missouri about design flaws putting the watercraft at a greater risk of sinking, less than a year before the accident that killed 17 people during a sudden storm.
A man watches an abandoned duck in the Ride the Ducks parking lot on Saturday, July 21, 2018 in Branson, Missouri. One of the company's canoes capsized on Thursday night. in several deaths on Table Rock Lake. (AP Photo / Charlie Riedel / Manila Bulletin)
Steve Paul, owner of Test Drive Technologies' Inspection Department in the St. Louis area, said he had issued a written report for the company in August 2017. He explained why engines – and pumps that remove water from their hulls – could fall in bad weather.
He also told The Associated Press that the sailboats of the tourist boats prevent them from escaping when they sink. The accident occurred Thursday night on Table Rock Lake outside the tourist town of Branson also raises questions as to whether storm warnings in the area have remained a dead letter and if an agency can prevent boaters leave the water The time is coming …
"If you have information that you could have rough water or a storm coming, why put a boat on this water?", Paul said.
A video of a duck witness just before he capsized, one might think that his soft plastic windows could have been shut and that passengers could have been trapped during the descent of the hybrid truck. It does not show the passengers who jump clear.
"The biggest problem with a duck when it sinks is this canopy," Paul said. "This canopy becomes what I'll call a people seeker, and people can not get out from under that canopy."
A spokesperson for Ripley Entertainment, the company operating the ducks at Branson, n & # He did not answer Saturday by phone and send e-mail for comments. Spokesperson Suzanne Smagala noted that Thursday's accident was the only one in more than 40 years of operation.
An archived version of Ripley's website says that he operates 20 ducks in Branson and describes them as "built from scratch"
In central Wisconsin, the original Wisconsin Ducks in the Dells do not plan to change the way it operates after 73 years of safe maneuvering, said General Manager Dan Gavinski, but his company operates World War II ships, not the modern modified version. [19659007Since1999duckshavebeenlinkedtothedeathsofmorethan40peoplewitharecordofsafetyontheroadandwaterTheirheightcandarkencarspedestriansorbicyclesfromthepointofviewofdriverandmaintenanceissuescanbeserious
Paul says that he will not know that the boat that sank is recovered from the lake for Ripley Entertainment in August 2017.
US Coast Guard said that the batea u that had sunk was built in 1944 and had an inspection in February, reported The Kansas City Star. But Paul said the boat would have been heavily modified to make it longer so that only a part of it dates from the Second World War. He said that he would still have the design flaw that he identified in his report.
He refused to share a copy of his report with the Associated Press but said that he said he was ready to make it available to the authorities. Paul says the duck boats he inspected – which the company had just purchased or repaired – were evacuating the engine exhaust gases at the front and below the waterline. He said that in difficult conditions, water could enter the exhaust system, then into the engine, shutting off the power. With the engine off, he said, his pump to remove the water from the hull would not work.
"If you look at this video, this water is definitely slammed into this exhaust without a doubt," said Paul. After the deadly sinking in Arkansas in 1999, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended removing awnings and increasing floatation capacity so that ducks could stay upright and continue to float even when they were taking water. 39; water.
said Robert Mongeluzzi, a Philadelphia attorney who has represented victims of duck boat crashes. Beacons can protect customers from the rain or the sun, and closed windows allow businesses to heat booths, extending opening hours.
The NTSB described the industry's response to the recommendations as disappointing. "The duck is notoriously unstable and unsuited to what he was trying to do with," said Daniel Rose, a lawyer whose New York-based law firm has represented victims in several accidents. "He's trying to be a boat and a car and does not do it, really, except in ideal circumstances."
State officials stated that the Coast Guard regulates such vessels; his officials did not immediately respond to requests for additional information. Spokespersons said that the Ministry of Transport does not regulate ducks because they are amphibians, and the Ministry of Public Security does not do so because it is a commercial vessel as opposed to a recreational boat.
that any agency had the power to keep boats off the lake. The Corps of US Army Engineers built it in the late 1950s, but its officials said they did not have such authority.
Witnesses said the weather seemed calm before a storm whipped up sudden strong waves and spray. Nearly eight hours earlier, the National Weather Service had issued a strong thunderstorm in the counties of western and central Missouri.
A violent thunderstorm warning was issued at 6:32 pm. specifically mentioned Rock Lake Table. The first emergency call on the accident occurred just after 19 hours
KRR-TV meteorologist Elisa Raffa in Springfield said Saturday in a telephone interview that her station was planning the threat of 39, violent weather all morning.
"do not come out of nowhere," she said. "That's what hurts me." I have the impression that we have done everything, at least we tried to do everything, by the book as meteorologists and we still have this horrible tragedy on our hands. "
Tags: coast guard, design flaws, duck, adverse weather, Missouri Lake, National Transportation Safety Board, Original Wisconsin Ducks, Steve Paul
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