Feds: Axle from duck boat in deadly crash 'sheared off'

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

SEATTLE (AP) — The left front axle of the duck boat involved in a deadly Seattle accident was "sheared off," but federal investigators said Saturday they don't know if it was damaged before the collision with a charter bus that killed four international college students.

National Transportation Safety Board Member Earl Weener said the axle will be sent to a federal lab for further examination.

Weener said it's too soon to know how the axle was damaged, or if it happened before the collision.

Witnesses have said they saw the duck boat's left tire "lock up" Thursday as it swerved into a charter bus carrying international students over a bridge. Four North Seattle College students from Austria, China, Indonesia and Japan were killed.

FULL story at link.


A plant arrangement and a card are seen near the main entrance to North Seattle College, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015, after multiple students in the college's international program were killed when the charter bus they were riding in to an orientation event was hit by a Ride the Ducks tourist vehicle in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4da3e104bc254212b8718ff7a2765dd4/federal-agency-plans-briefing-deadly-seattle-bus-crash

[AuntPatsy]

1. Extremely sad.....

[HooptieWagon]

2. Those things are WW2 vintage.

And I suspect the tour companies do as little maintenance as possible. There's not a lot of parts available, and they operate on a slim margin.

[montanacowboy]

3. This boat had not been inspected for 12 years!

They should be inspected every two years, so how did this slip through the cracks. This will be the end of this company.

[valerief]

9. Seems everything slips through the cracks to keep rich people richer. nt

[PatrynXX]

4. plenty of those in Wisconsin Dells

didn't know they were known as Ducks anywhere else until this

[HooptieWagon]

5. Military designation was DUKW.

Servicemen called them 'Ducks'. It was a hull designed around a GM truck already in production for the military. They can do about 50mph on land, and about 5 1/2 knots (6mph) in the water.

[jmowreader]

6. There are a LOT of Duck attractions

If you HAVE to ride a Duck, go to Philadelphia, Branson, Newport KY or Stone Mountain GA, and only ride the Ducks that have Donald Duck in their logo. That Duck operator builds their own from scratch; all the other operators buy the World War II-vintage ones.

[SeattleVet]

7. These vehicles are of much more modern manufacture.

The original 'Ducks' were WW-II vintage, but the Ride the Ducks company has been manufacturing their own (via their subsidiary) stretch-Ducks since the last 90's, and these are manufactured with all the modern Coast Guard mandated safety features. None of the ones they are using are vintage, anymore.

[HooptieWagon]

8. Okay. Thanks for the correction.

[SeattleVet]

10. OK another correction...

the one that crashed *was* ww-II vintage. And it also had not had a recommended fix done for the axle.

[HooptieWagon]

11. Interesting.

Those things were only intended to survive combat, not be operated for 75 years and umpteen thousand miles.

[SeattleVet]

13. They weren't really made to survive...

they were made to get the troops to where they needed to be. These weren't heavily-armored landing craft.

[Justice]

12. Boston Duck Boats are very famous

Used by Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics in victory parades.