Posts Tagged ‘ Ride the Ducks ’

Ride the Ducks Accident Settles, Some Question Canopy Safety

May 17th, 2012. By AbiK

The recent multimillion-dollar Ride the Ducks settlement serves as a stark reminder that even the most seemingly innocent of rides can spell disaster. Ride the Ducks—those amphibious vehicles that have become a tourist attraction at a number of locations across the US—would appear to be a pretty tame ride compared to what’s on tap at your local Six Flags theme park—that is, of course, if your eardrums can withstand the continual honking of the duck quack whistles all Ride the Ducks passengers receive (see below right).

Unfortunately though, for two Hungarian students who were visiting Philadelphia in July, 2010, their Ride the Ducks experience ended in death—and wrongful death lawsuits.

The duck boat, which in the Philly location drive-swims into the Delaware River, had had a mechanical failure and was floating adrift in the river when it was struck by a tugboat-guided barge. Sixteen year old Dora Schwendtner and twenty-year old Szabolcs Prem both drowned following the incident.

Both the Ride the Ducks tour company and the tugboat operator were sued—and the tugboat pilot, Matthew Devlin, was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to misconduct of a ship operator. (Both defendants had blamed each other for the accident.)

The Ride the Ducks Philly tour boats are back in the water—they’ve been given the ok by the US Coast Guard–but not everyone thinks they’re the safest things on the water. The boats have canopies—which, having been on one in the dead of summer, was a welcome relief from the glaring sun. However, in the event of capsize, the canopy could become a trap leaving passengers struggling to free themselves from underneath it while under water. The irony of it is that it might be easier to escape a canopy trap without having a life jacket on–but, of course,  no one would advocate not wearing a life jacket.

The Ride the Ducks settlement was for $15 million, to be split by both families of the victims. A $2 million fund was also set up for 18 other passengers who survived the duck boat accident. At the time of the accident, there were approximately 4o people onboard the duck boat.

Tags: Delaware River, Duck Boat Lawsuit, Duck Boat Tour, Philadelphia, Ride the Ducks
Posted in Accidents, lawsuits | No Comments »