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 ...
I will admit I do not know the topography of the land around the lake.
No
Don’t think so. I went with my dad to Branson for a Vietnam welcome home parade a few years ago and did this duck adventure. No life preservers were issued; basically you got on the duck and it drove to a few yards back from entering the river. Then the driver would hit the pedal and the duck would launch out into the river - heck of a ride there. Anyway they’d just stooge around and drive back. It appears a storm sprung up real quick and perhaps a tornado or strong gale force wind swamped the duck.
Thirty people on board. Seems like a lot for something that size to me. Despite the weather, it looks to me like it was stable up until the very end. My guess is that the pumps weren’t operating properly and the craft capsized as folks tried to put on preservers and move to the exit.
Why wouldn’t these boats have escape doors/windows like buses and planes have?
A life vest is necessary if there is a risk of falling overboard. You don’t want to be wearing one if there are impediments in your way trying to egress (such as any enclosed space). You need full mobility.
My family and I were in Branson this very week a year ago. You would see the ducks driving down the strip loaded with customers.
I would never get on one of those unstable vehicles. It is just too unstable.
bookmark
He was trying to head for shore. DUKWs have 6 cal. engines and weigh 6 tons. And proceed at 6MPH on water. Not powerful enough to overcome the 60MPH + winds from the N. One DUKW made it. One did not.
Are you on heavy drugs? Do you huff paint daily? Something is clearly wrong with you mentally. You just aren't right in the head. Did your daddy drop you from 20' repeatedly as a baby just for fun to watch you bounce off the pavement?
It's freakin' July dude!!
Every two or three years one of these sinks and usually takes several people with them. No one seems to have mentioned that these amphibious vehicles are at least 70 to 75 years old and have not had spare parts made for most of that time. I wonder how many of them have had unsafe repairs (to cut corners) made during that time. They were not made to last forever. They were made to be turned out faster than they could be sunk.
Limited egress, lots of people and not much time. Terrible shame but Missouri storms are a bear sometimes. Jackets don’t do any good until you’re clear. Wonder if they had a link to a shore facility to call for help. Lots wrong with this but my prayers to the families and survivors. Rough water calls for rough water boats.
One of the cable news nets had cell phone footage shot from the other Duck boat, which was also on the lake at the time, and somehow made it to shore. During the sequence, the cell phone pans (briefly) to a nearby dock where the large, paddle-wheel steamboat was waiting to take other passengers on the lake. The Captain of the steamboat kept his vessel at the dock until the storm passed. Hard to believe the Duck operators weren’t aware of the approaching storm and didn’t direct their drivers to return to the dock.
The company that operates the Duck boats better lawyer up fast. They will be paying millions in damages to the families of the victims. Vessels of that type don’t do well in rough water; read any account of the “swimming” Sherman tanks that were supposed to go ashore with our forces on D-Day; most foundered and sank long before they reached the beach.
They are pretty much open air.
It has a canopy with clear plastic curtains.
Well done. And prayers for these families.
I dont think they were designed with a metal enclosed top. I see the military DUKWs with hoops for a canvas cover, but a thousand extra pounds of aluminum on a boat with minimal freeboard......
Now I REALLY think they were overloaded. Most likely very routinely.
You are right, the ducks are open on the sides. Just guessing some of the life vests weren’t worn correctly? not everybody is familiar with how to properly don a life vest. Who helped the novices with their life vests? Im a long time boater and have seen people jump in the water off my boats with a loose life vest. your arms get stuck over your head and your head itself is under water. if you dont have the strenght to pull yourself up. you drownd wearing a vest. p.s. no one ever got hurt. but it was funny to watch a lifevest with a pair of arms sticking up and no head. and it NEVER happened to someone who wasnt deserving it. usually a drunk. NO KIDS Or ELDERLY!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.