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  Roan Wonder
   
Location: SW MO | The weather service issued a severe storm warning 30 minutes before the boat sank. There are pictures everywhere of the storm coming in you could see it a head of time & it looked horrible. The way those boats are made he could have ran it ground anywhere. ( You know would have, should have, could have, it's easy for us who weren't there to say what they should have done ) but when they saw that storm coming he should have headed for the closest shore not tried to make it back to port. There was a driver & a captain aboard so there were 2 people in charge. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1395
 
Location: Missouri | IRunOnFaith - 2018-07-23 10:40 AM
All I could think of when I heard this story was: what was going through those Mother's heads when they realized they were in danger? I know what would have been going through mine and I'm sure everyone here would have the same thoughts... I can't imagine being so helpless while my children were on board. The fear... My heart.... I'm tearing up thinking about them and their children... My heart hurts to think about what their last thoughts were trying to save their babies... My heart breaks.... I just can't imagine.... Made me hug my Little One so tight... 
This was my thought. Being with my children on that boat. It makes me absolutely sick. Trying to comfort them when they're scared to death not knowing what is going on.
The problem with bailing on these boats, I think, is the screen on the sides would make it extremely difficult. You'd have to make it to a door, right? And moving around a boat in those conditions would be impossible. Not to mention grabbing a life vest if you didn't have one on already. :( |
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 The best bad guy on the internet
Posts: 3519
Location: Arizona | Since everyone knew it was storming and the waters were rough, why didn't they start handing out life vest and making everyone put them one. And start getting ready to jump ship...once the boat took on water i would have jumped off for sure!! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 489
| I don't know that I would have had the where with all to jump ship before it went down, but you better believe they would have had to physically stop me from putting on a life jacket. A survivor has stated that they were told to stay in their seats and not get up to get life vests. I would have had one on and would have already known how to get the sides down or the back door open. With the sides up, there are only 2 ways out. Those boats should NEVER be out in rough water. The exhaust comes out the front of the boat. Every time it went into a wave - water was going in the exhaust. It was only a matter of time before they lost power.
It was a series of very horrible circumstances and bad decisions. I've read that the boats were delayed in getting on the lake because one of them had propeller problems when they tried to launch. Both ducks waited for another boat to arrive and the passengers transferred. This took between 20-30 minutes. The boat (no mechanical problems) that waited on the other to transfer passengers was the one to go down. Had they been on schedule, they would have been off the lake or at least a lot closer to the bank when the storm blew in. WHY was someone in the office not monitoring the weather? While multiple reports from witnesses/survivors have said that the lake was calm when the boats entered, the radar showed it was bearing down on them.
It's horrible and very sad. I really wish I'd never watched the video. You can only imagine the terror. |
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 Damn Yankee
Posts: 12390
Location: Somewhere between raising hell and Amazing Grace | Right now the main fact is that you really cannot question why this or why that because none of use were there. But here is some insight.....
Facts: Weather WARNING to include a warning of wind gusts up to 70MPH went out at 6:32. Storm watch/warnings had started two days earlier. At the same time the warning went out, a small boat/craft advisory went out on Table Rock as well. That advisory is pretty much an "advice" for all small crafts and small boats to get off the water. They cannot force them but can warn them. The duck boat that sank......typically they do the land tour first, water tour last. That day a person came on board and told them to do the water tour first because of the impending storm. The duck boat entered the water at 6:55, 23 minutes AFTER the warning went out. It sank less then twenty minutes later......
The bilge pump alarm for dangerous amount of water in the boat went off twice in ten minutes. No idea what exactly that meant, whether it was a malfunction with the pump or just a normal warning for high water in the boat. All the recordings end prior to sinking.
There were 29 tourists on the boat. Many of them were heavy set. I do NOT mean that in a degrading way. I bring that up because it could be a factor in several things. If the captain didn't have the weight evenly distributed, it could cause a capsize in high swells. And the number of passengers and weight of them could factor in his decision to have them remain seated. The life vests were strapped to the roof. So ppl would have to get up and stand on the seats to get the vests. Just that activity could cause potential to capsize the boat or trample ppl if they panic.
I have seen dozens of people blame the passengers for not putting the PFDs on. That makes me sick. None of us were there. We don't know what it was like. And no matter what, the lack of putting on PFDs did not mean anybody deserved to lose their life.
My personal opinion, Ripleys and the operators of the business should be criminally charged. Period. However, I also would not be suprised if there was a mechanical malfunction with the boat, possibly with the bilge pump. I do not think the boat sank slowly. I am only guessing that there is a chance the passengers didn't even know it was going to sink until it was too late. The boat capsized first. That can happen so fast that many times people don't have time to react.
I spend ALOT of time on the water. ALOT. Both ocean, river, lake, etc. This particular even has just been a hard pill for me to fathom because it just should not have happened. |
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 Fact Checker
Posts: 16572
Location: Displaced Iowegian | missroselee - 2018-07-29 11:12 AM Right now the main fact is that you really cannot question why this or why that because none of use were there. But here is some insight.....
Facts: Weather WARNING to include a warning of wind gusts up to 70MPH went out at 6:32. Storm watch/warnings had started two days earlier. At the same time the warning went out, a small boat/craft advisory went out on Table Rock as well. That advisory is pretty much an "advice" for all small crafts and small boats to get off the water. They cannot force them but can warn them. The duck boat that sank......typically they do the land tour first, water tour last. That day a person came on board and told them to do the water tour first because of the impending storm. The duck boat entered the water at 6:55, 23 minutes AFTER the warning went out. It sank less then twenty minutes later......
The bilge pump alarm for dangerous amount of water in the boat went off twice in ten minutes. No idea what exactly that meant, whether it was a malfunction with the pump or just a normal warning for high water in the boat. All the recordings end prior to sinking.
There were 29 tourists on the boat. Many of them were heavy set. I do NOT mean that in a degrading way. I bring that up because it could be a factor in several things. If the captain didn't have the weight evenly distributed, it could cause a capsize in high swells. And the number of passengers and weight of them could factor in his decision to have them remain seated. The life vests were strapped to the roof. So ppl would have to get up and stand on the seats to get the vests. Just that activity could cause potential to capsize the boat or trample ppl if they panic.
I have seen dozens of people blame the passengers for not putting the PFDs on. That makes me sick. None of us were there. We don't know what it was like. And no matter what, the lack of putting on PFDs did not mean anybody deserved to lose their life.
My personal opinion, Ripleys and the operators of the business should be criminally charged. Period. However, I also would not be suprised if there was a mechanical malfunction with the boat, possibly with the bilge pump. I do not think the boat sank slowly. I am only guessing that there is a chance the passengers didn't even know it was going to sink until it was too late. The boat capsized first. That can happen so fast that many times people don't have time to react.
I spend ALOT of time on the water. ALOT. Both ocean, river, lake, etc. This particular even has just been a hard pill for me to fathom because it just should not have happened.
I agree ..... there was absolutely NO reason for that boat to be out on the lake. I live in NE Arkansas and on our FIVE and SIX news, that storm was building BIG on radar and moving FAST south toward Springfield/Branson .....anyone with a brain at that business should have kept the boats OFF of the water or, at the very least, had the passengers put on the life jackets ....but money and greed always wins out! |
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Fact Checker
Posts: 16572
Location: Displaced Iowegian | $100M lawsuit filed on behalf of the family members (9) from Indiana. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | NJJ - 2018-07-30 6:46 PM $100M lawsuit filed on behalf of the family members (9) from Indiana.
And I hope that they get every penny of that 100M lawsuit.. |
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