Fatal crash prompts fresh calls to suspend duck boat tours
Philadelphia attorney Robert J. Mongeluzzi has renewed calls for duck boats to be taken out of service after another fatal accident.
In the latest incident, in Boston at the weekend, a 29-year old woman was killed when she was struck by a duck boat while riding a motor scooter.
"How many more people have to die in duck boat accidents before authorities realise they are deadly on land and in the water," Mongeluzzi said in a statement.
"Through our experience representing victims of duck boat disasters we’ve determined they are fatally flawed; they’re death traps on the water due to their hazardous canopy design and on land they are engineered to restrict the peripheral vision of the operator, creating significant blind spots," he added.
Mongeluzzi represented the families of two Hungarian tourists killed in 2010 when the duck boat they were in was struck by a boat in the Delaware River.
His firm has also filed a lawsuit for wrongful death after a Ride the Ducks vehicle killed a woman in Philadelphia last year.
He had previously called for a suspension of amphibious boat tours after another deadly incident in Seattle last year which killed four students.
The victim in Saturday’s incident has been named as Allison Warmuth. A male passenger travelling with her was also injured.
Vehicle operator Boston Duck Tours said in a statement: "After a thorough investigation at the scene by the Boston Police, we have been informed that it may take weeks or months to receive conclusive information. Safety is of the utmost importance to our company, and we will continue to provide our cooperation to the authorities."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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