Lawyers Advocate to Stop Duck Boat Tours

The tour boats have "serious safety flaws" and are "even more hazardous" when in the Delaware's busy shipping channel, asserted the lawyers, Holly Ostrov Ronai and Robert J. Mongeluzzi.

They urged the U.S. Coast Guard and the City of Philadelphia "to immediately impose a moratorium" on duck-boat service in the river.

A tour-boat operator, Ride The Ducks, has voluntarily suspended local operations since a July 7 collision between a disabled duck boat and a barge in the river near the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The accident killed two Hungarian students who were passengers in the amphibious vessel.A decision on the future of duck-boat tours ultimately rests with Coast Guard Capt. Todd Gatlin, who oversees river traffic in the Philadelphia area, said a Coast Guard representative.

"The Coast Guard will continue to work closely with Ride the Ducks and the City of Philadelphia to ensure that all safety issues related to the operations of the vessel are addressed," said Petty Officer Crystal Kneen.

The Coast Guard also is taking part in an investigation into the recent accident by the National Transportation Safety Board, she said.

A Ride The Ducks representative could not be reached Friday. The Georgia-based firm's website notes its 90-plus duck boats are inspected annually by the Coast Guard.

The firm also says it has Coast Guard approval for two vessels of its own design -- the 1999 "stretch duck" and the 2006 "truck duck." It was not known whether the boat that sank, called Duck 34, was one of those models.

The 35-foot duck boat, with 35 passengers and two crew members, sank quickly after it was hit by a 250-foot barge. The duck boat's captain has said his distress calls drew no response from the crew of a tugboat pushing the barge upriver.

The tugboat's pilot has declined to talk to investigators, citing his right against self-incrimination.

In a statement, Ronai and Mongeluzzi asserted the local duck boats "do not have sufficient reserve buoyancy to remain afloat in the event of flooding and have canopies which are well known to cage passengers attempting to escape."

They noted the NTSB, in a report on a May 1999 duck-boat sinking that killed 13 people on an Arkansas lake, said the "natural buoyancy of passengers' bodies forced them into the overhead canopy, which acted like a net to entrap them."

The lawyers' statement noted Duck 34 had a canopy, but it did not directly address the circumstances of the students' deaths. The attorneys, who are a preparing a civil lawsuit over the accident, did not return a call seeking additional comment.

Reach Jim Walsh at (856) 486-2646 or jwalsh@courierpostonline.com