Wrongful Death Complaint Filed Against Duck Boat, Tug Boat and Barge Owners in July 7 Delaware River Collision That Killed Two Hungarian Students

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Allegations of a blatantly unsafe tourist duck boat and a tug boat operating "blind and deaf" while pushing a City-owned sludge barge are detailed in a sweeping wrongful death Complaint filed this morning by lawyers representing the families of the two Hungarian student-tourists who drowned July 7, 2010 when the barge rammed the duck boat in the Delaware River. The action, the first Complaint filed in the aftermath of the incident, includes a claim for punitive damages based on the alleged outrageous conduct of the defendants.

The Complaint was filed by plaintiff's co-counsel Holly Ostrov Ronai, Esq., and Peter Ronai, Esq., of Ronai & Ronai, LLP, and Robert J. Mongeluzzi, Esq., and Andrew R. Duffy, Esq., of Saltz, Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky, PC, on behalf of the parents of Dora Schwentner, 16, and Szabolcs Prem, 20, who drowned when the barge, The Resource, capsized the duck boat in which they were passengers. The parents are Peter Schwendtner, Aniko Schwendtner Takacs, Sandor Prem and Gizella Prem.

The Complaint names as defendants: Ride the Ducks of Philadelphia, owner-operator of the ill-fated tourist boat DUKW 34; Herschend Family Entertainment Corp., Norcross, Georgia, the parent company of Ride the Ducks; K-Sea Transportation Partners LP (NYSE: KSP), East Brunswick, NJ,  owner-operator of Caribbean Sea, the tugboat; Amphibious Vehicle Manufacturing, Branson, Missouri, builder of duck boat 34; and the City of Philadelphia, owner of the 290-foot barge.  

"The families authorized this litigation because their only children died; they must know why and they are determined to protect others from the same fate," Ostrov Ronai said. "They were shocked to learn that the tug boat operator would not cooperate in the incident investigation – instead invoking the Fifth Amendment and hiring a criminal defense lawyer – and urged us to file now to get to the truth." She added that reconstructing the tragic events of July 7 points to the conclusion that the deaths of Dora and Szeb were senseless and clearly preventable.

Mongeluzzi, outlining the 13-count Complaint, said circumstances on July 7, 2010 would have been dramatically different had the defendants just followed the National Transportation Safety Board's  (NTSB) earlier warnings to upgrade safety features on the duck boats in the aftermath of the May 1, 1999 fatal Miss Majestic duck boat sinking on a lake in Arkansas. It was just 10 months after the Miss Majestic disaster the NTSB told the industry: "Without delay, alter your amphibious vessels to provide reserve buoyancy through passive means, such as watertight compartmentalization, built-in flotation, or equivalent measures, so that they will remain afloat and upright in the event of flooding, even when carrying a full complement of passenger and crew."

Three years later, in 2002, the Board would still find that "[u]nacceptable levels of risk to passenger safety continue to exist in these vehicles . . . because the industry has failed to take voluntary action to address [the risk posed by lack of adequate reserve buoyancy]."

The tourist duck boat industry has been plagued with accidents and has been an ongoing safety concern of regulators. Following a December 1999 public meeting, attended by industry representatives, regarding the Miss Majestic, the NTSB concluded that "[o]ne major outcome of the forum was the realization by participants that amphibious vehicles pose unique and unresolved safety risks to the public, but that the vehicles could be made safe by installing safety features that would prevent them from sinking when flooded."  

"There is no doubt that Dora and Szeb, on their first trip to America, thought they were safe when they boarded the duck boat. They had no idea they were on an accident waiting to happen," said Ostrov Ronai. The anchored duck boat – in a bulls eye on a busy shipping lane – became a sitting duck, a potential deathtrap like the ill-fated Miss Majestic  that claimed 13 lives, including students. The "duck-boat defendants," commented Ostrov Ronai, totally ignored the NTSB's plea to either make the boat unsinkable or remove the death-cage canopies that entrap and kill passengers.

Mongeluzzi said NTSB Miss Majestic investigators found the safety hazard was more ominous when the boats are equipped with canopies.  Reflecting on the July 7, 2010 fatal accident, and quoting from the just-filed Complaint, he said the NTSB final incident report in 2002 concluded that those canopies "essentially caged" passengers, making escape in the limited time available extremely difficult.  Its report stated that "[t]he natural buoyancy of passengers' bodies force them into the overhead canopy, which acted like a net to entrap them and prevent their vertical escape."  The canopies, used as a convenience, "present major safety risks . . . [especially since] . . . this unique vehicle is often promoted to and used by school groups.  The Safety Board, therefore, concludes that, on amphibious passenger vehicles that cannot remain afloat when flooded, canopies represent an unacceptable risk to passenger safety."

Among the numerous allegations and violations specified in the Complaint, the attorneys highlighted the following at a news conference following the filing in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

• The Duck Boat  
  • Failing to increase the buoyancy of the vessel per the NTSB recommendations
  • Operating in violation of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendations by having a fixed canopy barring timely passenger escape in the event of a loss of buoyancy
  • Failing to maintain basic safety equipment – including an air horn – and failure to issue and require passengers wear floatation devices
  • Intentionally operating outside their Coast Guard-approved limit
  • Failing to properly summon emergency assistance
• Tugboat Caribbean Sea
  • Failing to post a lookout; operating with a blind spot in a busy shipping channel
  • Failing to monitor proper emergency maritime channels; it was deaf to the duck boat's Mayday calls
  • Operating with an under-manned crew
  • Instructing crew members to invoke the Fifth Amendment, depriving NTSB investigators of valuable accident investigation information
• Amphibious Vehicle Manufacturing
  • Failing to design and build a vehicle/vessel that was unsinkable following the NTSC's recommendations based on its report of the 1999 Arkansas catastrophe
  • Failing to remove the death-cage canopy after they decided not to make the duck boat unsinkable.

Herschend, which purchased Ride the Ducks in 2004, owns and operates numerous family attractions and properties, including Ride the Ducks, Adventure Aquarium, Camden, New Jersey, Stone Mountain Park, suburban Atlanta, Georgia, Newport Aquarium, Rhode Island, and Dollywood, Nashville, Tennessee.

The attorneys are also asking the City of Philadelphia and the U.S. Coast Guard to bar duck boat service until the vessels are made safe.

SOURCE Ronai & Ronai; SMBB