Sending my love and heart felt sympathy to the victims and their families of the Branson, Missouri tragedy that happened yesterday. One of the "Ride the Ducks" boats capsized in Table Rock Lake. Thirty one people were aboard, 13 are confirmed dead with more missing. Several of the victims were children. My heart bleeds for everyone involved and for the community. Many hugs to all.

KC Man here...you know I have been to Branson many times, grew up on the Lake (parents had place at the mile marker 15). All I know as with any other large body of water - when there is a storm, it gets really wavy and treacherous. I have ridden "Ride the Ducks" many times in Branson, but even in good weather it's a bumpy slow ride. The storm threw waves over the side, the boat took on water quick. I could have sware we all had life jackets on when we road last time, but even then it is difficult to survive a harsh capsize, esp. for children. Breaks my heart.

We have them in Boston, and I'm surprised there are still so many that other operations run them (unless they're reproductions.)

I've heard of other sinkings, usually when the weather is bad and they have the canvass tops up--people can't escape.

In Boston, the problem has been navigating the tight, congested streets. The operator can't see the pavement close-up, and pedestrians, cyclists, and motorscooters have been hit. We had a woman killed on a motorscooter just last year.

They're popular and make good money. Don't expect them to be taken out of operation.

With 27 Tornado's hitting Iowa with winds over 100 mph, I would say the weather back in those states was something no one should not have been out in but it hit fast. One place only had a 45 min. warning of the approaching Tornado.

45 minutes is enormous warning for a tornado. We had one hit, the siren went off two minutes later. They can come out of any thunderstorm.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2018 08:30PM by sbg.

Everyone has been found that drowned. There are 17 dead and 7 in the hospital. The remaining 7 must be okay but the emotional scars from this horrific event will haunt them a lifetime. I'm sure they were all tourists. I've been out on those Ducks but doubt I would ever do it again. God Bless their souls.

I'm sure that you are feeling this keenly.

The design of the boat doesn't look at all safe to me. Too many people enclosed with no easy egress. When I am on a boat I want to know that I can get into the water quickly if needed. If the duck boat sank quickly, then it looks to me that the passengers would have been trapped. It didn't look to me from the video that there was any quick way for a large number of people to get off of that thing (unless they could punch out the windows, and even then I wouldn't think it likely with a quick sinking.)

It also looks to me like the boats ignored weather warnings. Storms on a lake can come up quickly.

why would anybody in their right mind go out on a lake in that kind of weather?

Reports say this was a Sudden storm, with about 45 (?) minutes warning from the weather service...

Boats should have a weather alert radio for just this type of situation!

'Acts of Nature / "God" is a legal defense to negligence, but this will definitely play out in the courts...

They were not wearing life jackets.

Stupid, stupid, STUPID!

Now it is coming out the captain told visitors they did not need to put them on.

When it started getting rough - why wouldn't these people grab a life jacket?

some passenger vessels are REQUIRED to conduct practice drills, IDK if this applies to tourist operations...


PFDs are REQUIRED to be accessible at ALL TIMES when passengers are onboard...

>>When it started getting rough - why wouldn't these people grab a life jacket?

I don't know. The life jackets were right overhead. All they had to do is reach up. My best guess (as a former lifeguard and swimming instructor) is that even the lifejackets may not have helped, because they were trapped on the boat due to the design. You can always throw a flotational device to someone in the water, but that assumes that you can get out of the boat in the first place.