Those duck boat tour vehicles have been in the news since the accident on a Seattle bridge last week that left five people dead.
Following the accident, Washington State regulators shut down the duck tours pending inspections and a review of maintenance records.
AP reports that there are about 100 vehicles in use across the country, although attorneys representing victims in prior accidents say they are too dangerous and have called for them to be banned from carrying passengers.
The vehicle involved in the Seattle crash had not undergone the repair of it front axle after a warning several years ago from the company that refurbishes the former military craft.
The NTSB had few details about the warning Ride the Ducks International issued. It was unclear what prompted it, how the potential failure was discovered, or whether it applied to all duck boats or only those the company had refurbished, Weener said.
It was unclear how many of the 100 duck boats in service nationally may have had the repair, he said.
Several duck tour companies did not immediately respond for requests for information about the warning and whether they had made repairs. Miami’s tour company noted that it uses newer boats — built since 2004 — and said the warning had nothing to do with its fleet.
The alert included specific instructions for inspecting the area where the shaft could fail as well as instructions for the repair, which involved welding collars around the axle shaft, Weener said.
In 2010, two vehicles operated by Hawaii Duck Tours were ordered out of service by the Coast Guard after a flash fire on one injured an employee, according to a report at the time in the Maui News.
Hmmmmm. I haven’t seen any follow-up by local reporters following the Seattle incident. How many of these duck vehicles/vessels are operating in Hawaii? Hawaii Duck Tours boasts of a number of different tours being offered, including a sunset tour, a Pearl Harbor tour, and another tour of Maunalua Bay, but it isn’t clear how many vehicles are involved, how many passengers they carry, or whether they have had the repairs that were previously recommended.
And their safety record locally? Unknown.
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The Hawaii Duck Tours don’t seem to operate the same WWII era DUKW’s that the Seattle Duck Tours do.
Probably still a dangerous nuisance though.
I saw a Hawaii Duck Tours vehicle on Nimitz Highway on Monday.
Re. “that left five passengers dead” – the 5 who died were not passengers of the Duck boat but rather students on the bus struck by the Duck boat. Tragic nonetheless.
Any vehicle that is not repaired after a warning that something is wrong can be hazardous.
At one point the vehicles used here were the WWII ones, and for all I know some might still be in service. I’ve only seen ones that *appear* to have been built recently, lately.