Another duck boat lawsuit
Lisa Berry, sister of one of nine members of an Indiana family who died when a duck boat sank July 19 on Table Rock Lake near Branson, attends a news conference Tuesday in Indianapolis after a second federal lawsuit was filed against the boat’s owners and operators. “The duck boat industry doesn’t seem to consider that lives are at stake,” Berry said.
INDIANAPOLIS — Fifty-three members of an Indiana family who lost nine relatives when a duck boat sank in Missouri described their pain and loss Tuesday while calling for a ban on the amphibious tourist boats, which their attorney likened to “coffins and death traps.”
Each member of the extended Coleman family spoke during a tear-filled news conference hours after their attorneys filed a second federal lawsuit against the owners and operators of the duck boat that capsized and sank during a storm July 19.
The disaster on Table Rock Lake near Branson killed 17 people, including nine of 11 Coleman family members who boarded the boat during a vacation trip. The other people killed were from Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri.
The suit was filed on behalf of the estates of Angela Coleman, 45, and Belinda Coleman, 69. The complaint, which seeks unspecified damages, echoes arguments made in a lawsuit filed Sunday seeking $100 million on behalf of the estates of 76-year-old Ervin Coleman and 2-year-old Maxwell Ly.
Belinda Coleman’s sister, Lisa D. Berry, tearfully recalled each of the lost members of her family, saying that “everyone who lost their lives, they do have a face.” She said the family is united in believing that duck boats are dangerous and that they should be banned so no other family endures the grief she and her relatives now face.
“The duck boat industry doesn’t seem to consider that lives are at stake, and it’s more than a ticket,” she said. “It’s people’s children, their moms, their dads, their grandparents, and we just want them to be held accountable.”
Both lawsuits name Ripley Entertainment Inc., Ride the Ducks International, Ride the Ducks of Branson, the Herschend Family Entertainment Corp., and Amphibious Vehicle Manufacturing. They allege that the owners and operators of the Ride the Ducks boat put profits over people’s safety when they decided to put the boat on a lake despite severe-weather warnings and design problems.
A Ripley spokesman said in a statement Monday that the company remains “deeply saddened” by the accident. She said the company would not comment further because a National Transportation Safety Board investigation is ongoing, and no conclusions have been reached.
Robert Mongeluzzi, an attorney for the Indianapolis-area family, said additional lawsuits are expected. He said duck boats’ canopies trap people when the boats sink, adding that the duck boat industry was warned about that hazard more than a decade and a half ago.
“They are coffins and death traps, and rather than doing anything about it, they continued to just sell more tickets,” Mongeluzzi said. “And this family has paid for that ticket with precious life and blood, and enough is enough.”
Mongeluzzi said that despite calling for a ban, the family supports legislation introduced Tuesday by U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to require that duck boats be better equipped to stay afloat or that canopies be removed. McCaskill’s legislation would enshrine recommendations made by federal regulators after a duck boat sank in Arkansas’ Lake Hamilton in 1999, killing 13 people.
The Indiana family’s suits allege that the companies ignored the National Transportation Safety Board’s warning in 2000 that the vehicles, which are designed to operate on land and water, should be upgraded to ensure they remain upright and floating in bad weather.
The two federal suits say that 42 deaths have been associated with duck boats since 1999.
Kyrie Rose, a 41-year-old Coleman cousin, described during Tuesday’s news conference the fear, uncertainty and horror after she received a telephone call alerting her that her relatives were on the duck boat that sank during a storm.
“There’s nothing like getting a call that you wouldn’t expect to hear that there’s been an accident, and hoping and praying all day that somebody, anybody’s going to be OK,” she said.
Information for this article was contributed by Summer Ballentine of The Associated Press.