The accident that didnt have to happen on Table Rock Lake is going to happen again. Maybe not in Missouri, but somewhere, sometime, and to somebody else.
Thats because no one regulators, lawmakers, the industry is being ordered to take the appropriate safety precautions.
Earlier this week the National Transportation Safety Board released its Safety Recommendation Report into the duck boat accident on Table Rock Lake in the summer of 2018. It was an accident that killed 17 people.
Lives could have been saved, and the Stretch Duck 7 accident could have been prevented had previously issued safety recommendations been implemented, NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt said in a statement.
It is imperative that the United States Coast Guard adopt these life-saving recommendations now, Sumwalt said.
If this sounds familiar its because 20 years earlier there was a similar accident in Arkansas in which 13 people died. There were investigations, recommendations, demands for change, etc.
Then crickets.
Nothing happened. Nothing changed.
Last week, Coast Guard Lt. Amy Midgett said they issued a guidance in 2000, following that NTSB recommendation, urging its inspectors and vessel owners to evaluate canopy design and installation and to evaluate the design and installation of seats, deck rails, windshields, and windows as a system to ensure the overall arrangement did not restrict the ability of passengers to escape.
Guidance … urging … evaluate …
A toothless attitude didnt get the job done then, and it wont get the job done now.
The Coast Guard also said a review of amphibious vessel canopies is planned based on the NTSBs reissuance of recommendations.
Again, review … planned … recommendations …
It is way too little, way too late.
Readers who followed the Globes own investigation after the Table Rock Lake accident already know all of this.
