Posted on 07/20/2018 3:36:46 PM PDT by Cecily
Nine members of the same family are among the 17 people who died on Thursday night when a duck boat capsized in a Missouri lake.
The family were from Indianapolis, but have not yet been named. Two other members of the family, who were also on the boat, survived.
Bill Asher and his girlfriend Rose Hamman were also identified as among the dead by friends on Facebook on Friday afternoon.
Bill and Rose had been on a week-long holiday in Branson, and had spent their last evening away on the duck boat, friend Mary Ogborn Kientzy said.
Family confirmed the death of grandmother Leslie Dennison, who had been on the boat with her 12-year-old granddaughter Alicia, via Facebook.
Her son Todd told the Kansas City Star on Thursday his daughter, who is recovering in hospital, said she could feel Leslie pushing her up as the boat filled with water.
'She said her grandmother saved her,' he told the paper. Leslie is being mourned as a 'true hero'.
Another five people were killed in the tragic accident, including Robert 'Bob' Williams, 66, who was driving the boat when it went down in Table Rock Lake in Branson.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The boat capsized in a storm. It was apparently not made to withstand high winds.
Shouldn’t have been out in that weather in a duck boat full of tourists.
Being an x CG type and spending a few days on & around the WawWaw 1st thing you ask when prepping to board a water craft is,”Where is my personal Flotation Device”
If the answer is you dont get one than LEAVE
The boat’s canopy seems to have prevented easy escape.
So very sad. Prayers up.
They both looked overloaded from the get go. Pushing the payload envelope in rough weather....
God Bless em all.
Well said.
Locally, they are not commenting on whether anyone had them on, but they were available overhead - I can see your point, that it might make egress harder.
But it’s July in MO; the water is not cold.
The main thing is, they were still out on the water despite a severe T-storm warning at 6:32 PM, the 60 mph winds came up at almost exactly 7 PM.
No, the driver told passengers they wouldn't need them, according to the link. By the time the troubles started, too late to get to them and put them on.
For us, I don't care what they say, we're putting on life-vests if we're out on the water. Anything can happen. I do so when out fishing on boats, because there are other reckless boaters around that can make accidents happen.
Very heartbreaking.
I pretty much agree with you on that, but growing up on the water all of my life I don’t think of flotation devices on small lakes and such. I wouldn’t dare go boating on the seas without one however.
Horrible. Why was there no way to pop the canopy?
If I am not driving or in charge then No Thanks.
Rules are made to be broken and commercial tourist type boat operators do a good job of it
“The water is COLD!!! just speculating... if the boat capsized, a life perserver is the last thing you want on.”
This happened in south Missouri not the South Pole. And, this is July, water may have been a little cool but it wasn’t cold. I watched the video a couple of times and it was obvious that the duck was taking on water as it was gradually riding lower and lower in the water. When the video stopped the duck was nose down almost even with the water. So, wondering if there was a bilge pump in the duck and if yes was it operating. Also, it was difficult to see through the plastic side curtains so couldn’t tell if people were putting on life jackets or not but from what little I could see there was very little moment inside. So, wondering why people weren’t opening those side curtains and bailing out. Lot of questions have to be answered for sure...
I’m just amazed at how huge this lake apparently is that these things did not have anyplace nearby to head towards, and instead looked like they went right out into as much open water as possible.
We took that ride in the duck boats in Branson back in 2001 - wife, who can’t swim, says she remembers wearing a life-jacket - I don’t remember specifically, but I know I would have been uncomfortable with her going out without one - I do recall the lake was choppy that day and the water was lapping almost up to the window line at times - made me a bit uncomfortable - sort of surprised this kind of thing hasn’t happened before....
Reported elsewhere there was 60mph winds. Thats insane even for a rough water boat.
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