I didn’t realize that these DuckBoats can be so dangerous. A distracted driver caused the Philadelphia accident. No report yet of the cause of the Seattle crash. I’ve seen these contraptions on my many visits to Boston and have been curious about taking a ride. Now I am not so sure.
We heard the left front tire blew out on the Duck. It was on the news yesterday afternoon from the news helicopter with people lying on the yellow (need to go to the hospital) and red (critically need to go to the hospital) tarps.It must have been a gruesome scene.
What terror must have been in the passengers’ minds! The Aurora Bridge is the highest bridge in Seattle, I think. And I had forgotten that it isn’t all that wide, so fear of a vehicle plunging in the water is very real.
I listen to the news on the radio all day at work. From what I’ve heard, the 4 who died were all on the BUS, not the Duck boat. However, many of the badly injured were on the Duck and were thrown out of it when it hit. What most people don’t realize is that the Ducks are former military craft and are made of steel, which is why the one here was able to destroy the side of the bus. Several people are saying that the saw problems with the wheel on the Duck just before the crash, but it will be some time before we know. For safety reasons, the Ducks have multiple cameras operating, so hopefully they will help the NTSB figure out what happened.
In the initial reports I watched yesterday, they indicated that all of the fatalities and serious injuries were to the students on the tour bus not the duckboat. Did that turn out to be the case?
Thankfully the impact did not push either vehicle over through the guardrail!
Talking with a doctor in Seattle, even they said it looked like something out of Grey’s Anatomy! Very sad for those students on the shuttle bus.
I don’t know about the seriously injured but the four perished were all college students on the bus. They were all international students from China new to the States. My heart aches thinking about all the hopes and dreams they had when they arrived here not so long ago.
The 4 victims were from Austria (49 yo woman), Indonesia (18 yo man), Japan (36 yo woman), and China (17 yo girl).
4 dead and 2 critically injured according to the local Times. 
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/ride-the-ducks-vehicle-collides-with-bus-on-aurora-bridge/
The photos of the crash scene are unreal.
@zeebamom, Thanks for the detail. I had no idea they were from different countries and different age groups. My co-worker used to be an international students coordinator at North Seattle College. We are all very sad.
I think the I-5 bridge nearby may be higher, but the Aurora is way up there as well.
So sad! One of the victims, the woman from Austria, was here while her 15 yr old son was studying abroad. He just started classes at Roosevelt High. Now friends are caring for him until he can return home.
Interesting, I didn’t realize that the duck boats are basically a variation (or maybe even authentic) copy of the WWII DUKW that they used for amphibious assaults (in several ill fated invasions in the south pacific, the DUKW’s couldn’t get over the reefs surrounding the island, and the marines ended up having to get out and wade through machine gun fire to hit the beach). It is kind of like the Circle Line in Manhattan, that is operating converted WWII era LST’s (they are boats only, not amphibious).
https://www.circleline42.com/experience/the-boats/
Not exactly LSTs, but some are converted.
Huh? The NTSB found that a tugboat towing a barge ran the duck down despite the driver making numerous and frantic calls on the radio.
[/quote]
Really? Which “ill-fated” invasions were those?
Read William Manchester’s classic memoir of the south pacific, about the first marine division, he talks about issues with amphibious vehicles, including dukw’s. If I recall correctly (and I haven’t read the book in a while), one of them was Tarawa, and i believe there were problems with a predecessor of the dukw at guadalcanal. When I said ill fated, it was that a lot of lives were lost that probably didn’t need to be. Put it this way, the first marine division in the south pacific took some ridiculous number of casualties in the entire campaign, it was something approaching several hundred percent. It doesn’t mean that the invasion ultimately failed, it means simply they paid a heavy price for misplanning and such. The DUKW itself worked pretty well, some of it was bad planning with tides and so forth, some of it was it took a while to perfect them.
@dadx: You are correct , it wasn’t lst’s, it was LCI , both were WWII ships but they had different purposes, LST’s and LCI’s both delivered troops but the LST was more geared towards gear than soldiers while the LCI were primarily troop transport. I always had trouble distinguishing between the two, they are similar but not the same:)
[NTSB: Duck vehicle didn’t have recommended axle repair](NTSB: Duck vehicle didn't have recommended axle repair)
It was a distracted boat PILOT in the Philadelphia crash.