Jury Awards $123 Million To Duck Boat Crash Victims

Jury Awards $123 Million To Duck Boat Crash Victims

Introduction

A Washington jury awarded about $123 million to the victims and families of a 2015 duck boat crash in Seattle, in which five college students were killed and more than 60 people were injured.

In 2015, the Branson-based company which manufactures Duck amphibious vehicle crossed the centerline of the Aurora Bridge and hit a charter bus carrying international college students. The lawsuit filed in 2016 claimed that Ride The Ducks of Seattle failed to adequately inspect and maintain the vehicle and ignored a 2013 service bulletin from the manufacturer warning about a defect in the axle which needed a fix. The attorney who represented Ride The Ducks International argued that the company had fixed the problem before the crash and issued a similar alert to other Duck-vehicle operators. At the end of a four-month trial, King Superior County jurors found that Ride The Ducks International was 67% responsible for the crash and the tour vehicle operator, Ride The Ducks of Seattle, was 33% at fault. The city of Seattle and the state of Washington, who were additional defendants in the lawsuit, were found not to be at fault.

After Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission suspended the local company from operating 20 of its tourist vehicles, Ducks Seattle agreed to pay $222,000 to settle a state complaint after acknowledging 159 critical safety violations. The Missouri-based Ducks company agreed to pay $1 million in civil fines for violating federal safety regulations.