Lawsuit filed in fatal duck boat sinking seeks $100 million

[TexasTowelie]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The owners and operators of a tourist boat that sank this month in Missouri, killing 17 people, put profits over people's safety when they decided to put the Ride the Ducks boat on a lake despite design problems and warnings of severe weather, a lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit filed Sunday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City seeks $100 million in damages on behalf of two of nine members of an Indiana family who died when the tourist boat sank July 19 at Table Rock Lake near Branson. Others killed were from Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri.

"This tragedy was the predictable and predicted result of decades of unacceptable, greed-driven, and willful ignorance of safety by the Duck Boat industry in the face of specific and repeated warnings that their Duck Boats are death traps for passengers and pose grave danger to the public on water and on land," the lawsuit alleges.

Ripley Entertainment Inc., Ride the Ducks International, Ride the Ducks of Branson, the Herschend Family Entertainment Corp., and Amphibious Vehicle Manufacturing are named in the lawsuit, which was filed by a team led by a Philadelphia-based legal firm that has litigated previous lawsuits involving duck boats. The legal team planned a news conference Monday morning.

Read more: https://www.dailyprogress.com/news/national/wire/lawsuit-filed-in-fatal-duck-boat-sinking-seeks-million/article_6a0b20e7-71e9-5102-b559-17bc185131d3.html

[exboyfil]

1. I wonder about the due diligence by Ripley

They have owned this attraction for less than a year. It is interesting that the former owner Herschend is also included in the lawsuit.

I wonder if the companies will try to keep the liability at the Ride the Ducks of Branson level which probably has little in assets (22 worthless duck boats, admin offices, and ticket selling locations?). I don't think they will be successful.

[Girard442]

2. After I read about the 1999 Arkansas Duck Boat sinking, I vowed never to set foot in one of them.

A seal failed. The boat sank almost instantly. Any vessel where you can go from normal operation to sinking in a few minutes isn't safe.