Missouri Duck Boat Accident Kills 17, Including 9 From Same Family
By John Eligon, Timothy Williams, Mitch Smith and Karen Zraick
July 20, 2018
BRANSON, Mo. — The image from Table Rock Lake that onlookers say they will never forget is the heads, one after another, bobbing in the wild, darkened water.
One would pop up on the surface and then disappear. There were so many of them amid the pounding waves — there one moment, and then gone.
As a boat packed with tourists capsized during a fierce storm in a popular summertime region of southern Missouri, Table Rock Lake was transformed into a desperate struggle for survival. Fishermen and other tourists in passing boats and on docks tried to pull people up, and some tried to administer C.P.R. People raced to throw life jackets out, but the unstopping wind seemed to toss the jackets back.
“It was a nightmare,” said Ron Folsom, a tourist from Fort Smith, Ark., who said he was on a dock along with dozens of other stunned onlookers. With all the wind, he said, “all you could hear was squeals and screams and hollering.”
Seventeen people were killed in the accident on Thursday evening, and seven others, including three children, were taken to hospitals. Officials said that the victims ranged in age from 1 to 76. It was one of the deadliest accidents involving a duck boat — modeled after the amphibious trucks used in World War II to move along land and water — in United States history.
Nine of those who died were members of a family from Indianapolis who had traveled to Branson for their annual road trip, according to Carolyn Coleman, who said two of her brothers-in-law were among the deceased. Two other family members on the boat survived, she said.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/us/duck-boat-branson-accident.html
Missouri duck boat passengers were told not to wear life jackets by captain, survivor says
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142115643
