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A private inspector said Saturday that he had warned the company operating ducks on a Missouri lake because of design flaws that exposed the craft to a greater risk of sinking. The warning came less than a year before the accident that killed 17 people during a sudden storm.
Steve Paul, owner of Test Drive Technologies' inspection service in St. Louis, said he issued a written report for the company in August 2017 explaining why boat engines – and pumps that remove Water from their hulls – could fail in bad weather.
He also told the Associated Press that the canopies of tourist boats prevent them from escaping when they get off. The accident that occurred Thursday night at Table Rock Lake, outside the tourist town of Branson, also raises questions as to whether storm warnings in the area have remained unfulfilled and whether the weather is unhelpful. The agency can prevent boaters from approaching the water when bad weather approaches.
"If you have information that you might have rough water or that a storm is coming, why put a boat on that water?" Paul says:
Pat Cox, owner of State Park Marina at Table Rock Lake, called her manager Roger Carpenter just after 6 pm. Thursday with orders to evacuate the marina. Carpenter was waiting to find people in lifejackets floating in the water. What he encountered was very different.
"All we saw was empty lifejackets and empty lifebuoys and I mean, your heart just falls," he said. "It's a shame, it's a shame."
A video of the duck boat just before it capsized suggests that its soft plastic windows could have been closed and could have jammed passengers while the hybrid boat-truck collapsed. It does not show that passengers are clear.
"The biggest problem with a duck when it sinks is this canopy," Paul said. "This canopy becomes what I will call a people seeker, and people can not get out of under this 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An archived version of Ripley's website says that she operates 20 ducks in Branson and describes them as "built from scratch in the United States"
In central Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Ducks Originally in the Dells do not plan to change its mode of operation after 73 years of safe maneuvering, said General Manager Dan Gavinski.But his company operates World War II ships, not the version modern modified.
Since 1999, ducks have been linked to the deaths of more than 40 people, with a record of safety on the road and water.Their height can obscure cars, pedestrians or bicycles from the driver's point of view, and the problems of maintenance can be serious.
Paul says that he will not know until the boat gets the sand from the lake. for Ripley Entertainment in August 2017. He refused to share a copy of his report with the Associated Press, but said that he was ready to make it available to the authorities.
"I am sure that eventually he will be summoned"
Paul said that the ducks he had inspected – that the company had just bought or repaired – were evacuating gas from 39 engine exhaust at the front and under the water line. 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 in danger. they take water
said Robert Mongeluzzi, a Philadelphia attorney who has represented victims of duck boat crashes. Beacons can protect customers from rain or 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. "It tries to be a boat and a car and does not do it really, except in ideal circumstances."
State officials said 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 Engineers of the US Army 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 suddenly whipped up strong waves. But nearly eight hours earlier, the National Weather Service had issued a strong storm warning 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 calls on the accident occurred shortly after 19 hours
KOLR-TV meteorologist Elisa Raffa in Springfield said Saturday in a telephone interview that his station was planning the threat of "fire." a severe weather all morning.
"do not come out of nowhere," she said. "That's what's bothering me, I feel we did everything, at least we tried to do everything, by the book as meteorologists and we still had this horrible tragedy in our hands."
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