GALENA, Mo. — A Missouri judge dismissed charges against a captain and two supervisors, who had been accused of first-degree involuntary manslaughter and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, after a duck boat sank in 2018.
Seventeen people died — including nine members of an Indianapolis family.
According to KY3, the Missouri judge dismissed the charges saying the unique characteristics of the boat led to it rapidly sinking. The judge also said that while the staff was aware of an approaching storm, there was no evidence they were aware of the storm's "gust front."
The Missouri Attorney General's Office filed the charges against the duck boat staff after a federal judge dismissed charges filed by federal prosecutors.
The National Transportation Safety Board released its final report in April 2020 on the Missouri incident and said it blamed the U.S. Coast Guard and Ripley Entertainment, Inc. for the deadly accident.
In its probable cause, the NTSB says the duck boat sank because supervisors with Ripley Entertainment still put boats on the water, even in the middle of a severe thunderstorm warning that had been forecasted and communicated to them.
Plus, the NTSB says the Coast Guard didn't force duck boats to change their design to prevent flooding, even after similar tragedies in the past. The NTSB also says so many people died in this accident because the boats had fixed canopies and side curtains that essentially trapped passengers during an emergency.
Tia Coleman and her nephew are the only two who survived from their Indianapolis families. Nine of their family members did not survive, including Tia's husband, Glen, their two sons and their baby daughter.
Tia has become an advocate for greater duck boat safety since the tragedy.
Congressman André Carson's legislation to improve duck boat safety passed the House at the end of March.
The Duck Boat Safety Improvement Act includes the following safety measures:
- Improving reserve buoyancy and watertight compartmentalization to prevent sinking
- Requiring more monitoring and adherence to severe weather alerts and warnings
- Requiring release of road safety seatbelts when duck boats become waterborne
- Requiring stronger crew safety training and certification
- Removing or reconfigure canopies and window coverings for waterborne operations
- Requiring personal flotation devices for waterborne operations
- Requiring installation of better bilge pumps and alarms
- Installing underwater LED lights that activate automatically in emergencies
- Complying with other Coast Guard boating safety requirements.
The legislation is being considered by the Senate.