“Ride the Ducks” amphibious tour boats are silent on Thursday in memory of those who died last year on that date in a fatal barge accident.
A 250-foot barge crashed into a duck boat on the Delaware River July 7, 2010, killing two people and forcing 35 others into the river as the duck boat sank.
“Our closure is intended to honor the people on board and the first responders who helped that day,” said Chris Herschend, Ride the Ducks president. “It is also a reminder to our team of what we learned, and our ongoing commitment to assure nothing like this ever happens again.”
The Ride the Ducks amphibious landing craft stalled in the water that day. The barge then collided with the duck boat.
Investigators found that the mate piloting the barge was on his cell phone dealing with a family emergency at the same time the duck boat was stalled in the Delaware River. It was also discovered that a company laptop computer was used by the crew member for personal use, in violation of official policy, before the crash.
The deckhand for Ride the Boats that day was also distracted by his cell phone, according to the NTSB report. Investigators used this photo of the deckhand texting minutes before the collission to make their case:
Two Hungarian tourists, Dora Schwendtner and Szabolcs Prem, died that day.
Last month, attorneys for the families of those two victims reacted to the Ride the Ducks tribute with this statement:
"If Ride the Ducks Philadelphia wants to sincerely honor the lives of Dora and Szabolcs, it should publicly acknowledge that their vessel overheated because their rookie mechanic failed to screw the radiator cap back on the night before the accident. And they should apologize for setting off the chain of tragic events that led to the deaths of these children. They should stop saying on their website that they did "not cause the accident." If they truly wanted to memorialize the loss of these children, they should do so immediately by removing the canopies that make their vessels deathtraps."
In it's final report, the NTSB recommended that the operators of the tugboat and the duck boats review all safety and emergency procedures. The NTSB also issued recommendations to the U.S. Coast Guard to increase focus on and oversight of inappropriate use of cell phones and other wireless electronic devices by on-duty crewmembers in safety-critical positions.
