By Steve Vockrodt
The Kansas City Star
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A new federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday by a survivor of the July 19 duck boat disaster in Missouri that killed 17 accuses the owner of the boat of using a 1940s-era chassis to avoid modern safety standards.
Tia Coleman of Indianapolis, who escaped from the sinking duck boat on Table Rock Lake but lost her husband and children, sued Ripley Entertainment, Ride the Ducks International, Herschend Family Entertainment and others for wrongful death in federal court.
The duck boat with 31 people on board encountered a severe storm and succumbed to winds in excess of 70 miles per hour.
Since then, Ripley Entertainment and others have faced a battery of lawsuits, criminal inquiries and civil investigations. One of the other lawsuits was filed by Coleman’s relatives; of the 11 family members aboard the boat that day, only Tia Coleman and a nephew survived.
Coleman’s filing contains many of the allegations contained in earlier lawsuits against the companies behind the Branson duck boat operation: The company knew the duck boats were unsafe, they failed to heed recommendations for making them safer and were negligent in carrying out a tour when a severe storm was approaching Table Rock Lake.
The Coleman lawsuit claims that the boat in question, dubbed Stretch Duck 07, was built in 1944 using a 4-ton-truck chassis (the frame vehicles are built upon), which enabled the boat to avoid modern safety and emissions standards.
“I can tell you that they don’t have modern bumpers, they don’t have airbags, they don’t have any modern federally required vehicle safety standards,” said Robert Mongeluzzi, a Philadelphia lawyer representing the Colemans in both lawsuits who has sued duck boat operators in the past. “Their response has been, we’re grandfathered in because we’re using 1940s chassis.”
Ripley Entertainment and Herschend Family Entertainment were not immediately available for comment.
In the past, Ripley Entertainment has said it cannot comment publicly about matters under litigation.
The U.S. Coast Guard referred its investigation into the duck boat tragedy to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri for a possible criminal inquiry. The U.S. attorney has since requested that civil lawsuits involving the duck boat disaster delay certain proceedings while it explores whether criminal charges are warranted.
