Table Rock duck boat

I’ve seen the video a couple times. If the captain would have turned and went with the wind, would that have helped ?

Couldn’t have been much worse. Seems more like bad training, you see waves thar big don’t go.

Why not pull towards shallows and off load people. It didn’t seem far off shore in the footage I’ve seen. Terrible accident that quite easily could have been prevented. Sorry for all involved

the lawyers are lining up on this one, curious to know what the company policy is about weather. Hope that extra $300 you made on that trip was worth it duck boat company. sorry, for people calling this an accident is letting the negligent/greedy boat owners off the hook. My guess the courts are not going to call this an accident

We can all be armchair quarterbacks and say how we would have done it, none of it matters now. We weren’t there, and likely never driven a Duck boat, so we have no idea what was actually happening. Let’s all just keep the victims and family members in our thoughts and let the story play out.

From what I have heard the wind came up suddenly. Happened to me on Mille Lacs on a glass calm day. This tragedy could have happened to anyone.

I’m just thinking he could’ve turned that boat and “surfed” it too safety. I’ve been on rough water many times and there’s a way to do it, and ways not to do it.

wkw wrote:

I’m just thinking he could’ve turned that boat and “surfed” it too safety. I’ve been on rough water many times and there’s a way to do it, and ways not to do it.

And while the boat is turning it takes a large wave broadside and capsizes. I’m guessing people here would be saying he should have stayed the bow into the wind. These boats aren’t as nimble as an outboard fishing boat, it takes a while for them to make maneuvers. It comes down to what the captain thought best for the situation with the boat he was driving.

munchy wrote:

We can all be armchair quarterbacks and say how we would have done it, none of it matters now. We weren’t there, and likely never driven a Duck boat, so we have no idea what was actually happening. Let’s all just keep the victims and family members in our thoughts and let the story play out.

From what I have heard the wind came up suddenly. Happened to me on Mille Lacs on a glass calm day. This tragedy could have happened to anyone.

Munchy, i get it and there have been times in my day when weather has snuck up on me. This situation is different imo, there are videos that show they are not that far from shore, a Severe T-storm warning went out 40 minutes before the boat sank, there is no way with the the phones we all have today that this should have happened. saw an interview with the owner of the company, he was questioning why they were still on the water with the weather warnings. Threats of 70 mph winds 40 min before is not an accident. the poor families, I can’t imagine

The scum of the earth hotshots will be arguing “parallel truths” on this one for years and the families will likely get peanuts, if anything, compared to them. Seems like cut and dry neglegience but I’ve seen first hand how lawyers and judges can get rich off peddling their parallel truths (LIES, to you laypeople). Either way the house (lawyers) always win.

As I understand it…warnings were issued an hour prior to the
sinking and again 30 minutes before.

One survivor said they were told they did need to get the life jackets
down and put them on.

It sure appeared that he could have angled it towards the shore
…anytime in the last 5 minutes and beached it. They have wheels !
I didn’t see anyone bailing out of the boat or the windows as
he kept plowing forward as the bow got lower and lower.

Just my observations of a horrible “incident”.

Very sad so many lives were lost !

tweed

WKW in response to your question…

First off, I’ve never been in a duck much less drove one in good weather.

But unless the duck was going the speed of the waves, I would think they would have come in the back just as much at they did coming in the front. I know they can’t be compared to a boat but back trolling in wind doesn’t seem to work very well.

As with most accidents, it’s the result of a number of errors that leads to loss of life. Sounds like there were plenty made.

What a tragedy for the folks on vacation trying to enjoy the sights of Table Rock Lake.

I was in a canoe in the BWCA on Seagull many years ago when we got caught in waves that were similar. Although it was very scary, we did get back to shore by “surfing” with the wind. I think what saved us was the fact we identified the situation early enough to get turned around.

Lots of unanswered questions… Couple things I thought of during the video…

Who knows If he already tried to turn that tank and ride the waves??, maybe he did and it almost tipped on the turn? That boat is a TANK and I doubt you could get that thing turned around without capsizing.

My first thought was to run to shore too since the video seemed close to land but it’s a grainy video which means the cell phone cam was zoomed in a long ways. And who really knows if the direction he was headed was closer to shore than the bar that the videographer was in??..

If the company was anything like the ducks in Wisconsin Dells they are driven by high school/college age kids. Most likely not the most seasoned boat captains. They also handle like crap compared to a boat, then compound that with bad weather it equals a tragic situation. IMO they should have suspended rides until the storm passed. Hind sight is 20 20 though.