Duck Boat accident in Philly

A couple days ago a tour boat in Philadelphia was hit by a tug and barge.
Two young people were lost and both bodies were found today, one in the morning and one this afternoon.
It is not clear yet whether the tug was pulling or alongside the barge.
The news article made a point that the duck boat did not have a radar reflector which I believe would be unnecessary for a squareish steel truck/boat.
There was a photo on the web yesterday of the instant of impact which showed the duck boat barely visible under the bow of the barge.

I imagine the tug captain is responsible but I wondered if he would be charged with something like manslaughter or worse........



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100709/ap_on_re_us/us_duck_boat_accident

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Delaw...lYwN5bl9yX3RvcF9waG90bwRzbGsDYW5hbXBoaWJpb3Vz

In the news reports on TV it said the Duck had mechanical difficulties immediately after splashing in.
Of course after the fact it is easy to say they should have started firing off flares and anything else once the barge was approaching.
In fact once the mechanical difficulties happened everyone should have been told to get the life preservers on right away.
16 and 20 yrs old, very sad.

Thats a good point.
From the pics on TV I thought " upstream" but I was assuming the pics were from the PA side and not the NJ side. Also assumed they were the correct oreintation.

Based on the interview with the NTSB representative, by the time they are done, they will know everything from the direction of travel to what each person had for dinner the night before.
Thorough to the Nth degree.

They had a memorial service yesterday in the rain for the two kids lost in the accident.

This is a pretty nasty picture of the acccident

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/gallery?section=news/local&id=7541998&photo=37

If you follow the sequence you can see there are people in the Duck as it is being overrun.

Last nights news was focusing on whether there were look outs on the barge and the lack of distress signals, ( only one has been documented on Ch.13 )

Alcohol use by both crews has been ruled out and drug test results will return in about 1 week.

Also the picture looks to me like the barge is traveling upstream.

07/14/10 update on the Duck

Below is a copy of an article from the Phila. Inquirer by Troy Graham.

Sumamrized.
No look out on the barge.
A clear dry day and calm seas.
A mate was running the tug.
A second mate was minding the engineering duties on the tug.
The remaining crew incl. the captain were off shift and asleep.
One deck hand or mate somewhat accuses the Duck boats in general as not really abiding by the rulls or the road.

Is the Captain ultimately responsible even though he was off shift?

Begin Inquirer article

Tug mate in Philadelphia duck crash did not put lookout on barge, union official says
By Troy Graham

Inquirer Staff Writer

The mate piloting a tugboat involved in a fatal accident last week did not station the only other working crew member as a lookout on the barge they were pushing up the Delaware River, a marine union official said Tuesday.

Instead, the deckhand remained in the tug, where he would have been making rounds and tending to anything the mate needed.

Coast Guard regulations, known as the Rules of the Road, say vessels must "maintain a proper lookout by sight." The rules are vague, however, and do not specify what pilots must do to comply.

Whether the tug crew was in the best position to see the disabled Ride the Ducks craft is one of the many questions arising from the accident last Wednesday, which killed two tourists from Hungary.

If the deckhand had been positioned on the barge, for example, he likely would have seen the tourist craft, anchored in the shipping channel with 35 passengers aboard.

But on a clear day, having a lookout on the barge should not have been necessary to spot the vessel and comply with the Coast Guard's safety rules, said Steve Oravets, the director of special projects for the tug crew's union, Local 333, United Marine Division of the International Longshoremen's Association.

In fact, he said, when only one deckhand is on duty, it is safer to have him inside the tug.

"You're just as likely to have something go wrong on the tug. . . . You want to have somebody up on the tug who can smell smoke, stick his head in the engine room," said Oravets, a tug captain for 20 years. "I've had a fire a couple of times and lost steering a couple of times, and I was **** glad I had a guy on board and not way out on the barge."

Oravets, who is based in Staten Island, N.Y., provided the first account of the collision from the tug crew's perspective. On Friday, federal investigators gave a detailed briefing based on interviews with the crew and passengers of the amphibious tourist craft.

Oravets came to Philadelphia shortly after the accident and met with four of the five crew members of the tug, the Caribbean Sea. He said the mate appeared shaken and was on his way home, so he did not try to speak with him.

The captain and deckhand on Duck 34 told investigators that they noticed the barge when it was 400 yards away.

Although there is a blind spot in front of a barge, at 400 yards the mate would have seen Duck 34 from the upper pilot house, Oravets said.

He said the mate may have assumed the vessel was under way and failed to realize it was disabled and anchored in his path.

"He's probably seen them cross his bow a hundred times," he said. "They don't pay attention to the Rules of the Road."

A Ride the Ducks spokesman noted that the group's captains were certified by the Coast Guard and said they followed the Rules of the Road.

It is not known whether the mate saw Duck 34, because he "exercised his Fifth Amendment right" and refused to meet with federal investigators on Saturday, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Oravets did not know why the mate took the Fifth, but he said criminal charges often were pursued in fatal incidents.

"I assume this investigation is going to crucify the mate because he didn't have a lookout on the barge," Oravets said. "That's typically the case. The poor guy on the boat gets the blame."

Duck 34's captain and deckhand said they shut down their engine and dropped anchor in the shipping channel after seeing and smelling smoke on board, according to the NTSB.

Captain Gary Fox told investigators that he broadcast to nearby vessels on Channel 13 that he had stopped, and that he called the ducks' dispatcher to send another duck to pick up his passengers.

The collision happened from five to 10 minutes later, the NTSB said. When the barge, moving at five knots, drew close, Duck 34's crew tried to radio the tug on Channel 13 and signal the boat with an air horn, which failed.

The tug did not respond to the radio calls, but other vessels in the area reported hearing them, the NTSB said. Duck 34 did not use Channel 16, the emergency frequency monitored by the Coast Guard.

Coast Guard officials also said they did not pick up any radio calls on Channel 13.

Typically, Oravets said, a captain or mate is listening to three radios at the same time. He said the mate could have missed Duck 34's calls.

"He's in the upper pilot house. You're above the exhausts, so you're going to have all that noise," he said.

On tugs with five-man crews, the captain, the engineer, and one deckhand work from 6 a.m. to noon, then rest and sleep for six hours, before working from 6 p.m. to midnight.

From noon to 6 p.m., the mate and the second deckhand are on duty. The collision happened about 2:30 p.m., during the mate's shift at the wheel.

Federal investigators have interviewed the deckhand on duty, as well as the captain and engineer. They did not interview the off-duty deckhand, who was asleep at the time of the collision.

The Caribbean Sea, owned by K-Sea Transportation, was pushing a city-owned sludge barge. A spokesman for K-Sea has said the company will not comment on details of the collision because of the ongoing investigation.

Tugs used to have crews of six or seven members, including a cook and an assistant engineer, Oravets said. The industry in the New York area went to five-man crews in 1988, he said.

"Why doesn't he have an extra man up there?" he asked. "Because the company decided back in 1988 to go cheap."

Having only two people awake and on duty is "a vulnerability and always has been," he said, and the mate should not be blamed for making "a decision when he's working shorthanded."

"I know the guy wasn't drunk or asleep or anything like that," he said. "He was doing everything that's normally done on a tug." "
End Inquirer article

I saw an interview with the lawyer who will represent the two victim's families on the local news.
He will bring law suits against the duck boats and the tug and he is contemplating whether to sue the city as well.

The mate is keeping mum on the advice of his lawyer according to this article:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/breaking/...rs-felony-charge-for-his-client-99251739.html

From the artcle above :
{ In radio communications released Friday, the tug is heard telling the Coast Guard: "We are the ones that, I guess, capsized the duck boat. We're on scene, but we do have a barge alongside so there's not too, too much we can do." }

This statement and the actual recording was on the news today and mentioned several times as proof positive that the mate did not KNOW what was going on around him according to the victim's lawyer.