Duck Boat Canopies Played the Biggest Part in Deaths, says Lawyer

INDIANAPOLIS–Duck boats should be banned, or at least they should have the canopies removedm said Robert Mongeluzzi, one of the attorneys representing the Coleman family, of Indianapolis. They’ve filed a $100 million federal lawsuit Ripley Entertainment and Ride the Ducks. Nine members of the family died July 19, when one of the boats turned over and sank during a storm at Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri.

“We drove them out of Philly, and with this lawsuit, we hope we will drive the duck boats out of business,” said Mongeluzzi, at a Monday news conference.

Also being sued are Ride the Ducks International, LLC, Ride the Ducks Branson, LLC, Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation, and Amphibious Vehicle Manufacturing, LLC., companies that Mongeluzzi said he believes are responsible for people dying because they did not remove the canopies, after being advised to do so by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Other incidents

Those recommendations came after other duck boat incidents, one in Mongeluzzi’s hometown of Philadelphia, when a barge hit a duck boat in 2010, pushing it under the water, and trapping two people, who drowned.

Mongeluzzi said the canopies are particularly dangerous because they can trap people inside the boat if it turns over. If you have a life jacket on, you float to the top and can’t get out. If you don’t have one on, you have to fight your way through a window in the canopy, in the dark, to get out.

“Because of the canopies that they added, you are dead if you do, dead if you don’t, drowned if you do, drowned if you don’t,” said Mongeluzzi.

He said another incident in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1999, killed 13 people when they were trapped inside the canopy. Three children were in the group who died on the Miss Majestic. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the canopies should no longer be on the duck boats, said Mongeluzzi.

“And the duck boat industry did nothing, except continue to sell tickets and expose their passengers to harm and death,” he said.

He said he believes the responsibility for the 42 people who have died in duck boat happenings since 1999 is on the industry as a whole, because of their continued practice of having canopies on the boats, which he equated to more ticket sales.

Mongeluzzi works with Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett and Bedensky, and has been successful at suing companies after accidents. He said the insident in Philadelphia, where the firm is based, resulted in a $17 million settlement.

PHOTO: CNN Newsource/Brad Parks