Four global students died in the crash Thursday after witnesses said the duck boat veered into the oncoming bus.
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Investigators are pictured at the scene of a crash between a Ride the Ducks vehicle and a charter bus on the Aurora Bridge in Seattle, Washington, September 24, 2015.
Richard Johnson, president of Bellair Charters, told the AP Friday the charter bus driver reported the duck boat “careened” into them on the bridge.
The amphibious vehicle was refurbished in 2005 for its engine and chassis, Weener said.
Weener said the axle and parts of the drive mechanism would be sent to the NTSB labs in the hope of understanding the characteristics of the fracture and whether it contributed to the crash, or whether it occurred before or after the crash.
The left front axle of the amphibious vehicle was sheared off, but investigators do not know what caused that to happen, Weener said.
A family from Fremont, California, is grateful to be alive after they were thrown from an amphibious tour vehicle that collided with a charter bus in Seattle. In 2010, two tourists were killed when a tugboat pushed a barge into a similar vehicle, also in Philadelphia.
“Just the sound. The smell of gas”, said Rujia Xie, a 16-year-old from China, who was on the bus carrying about 45 North Seattle College students and staff. A National Transportation Safety Board team arrived Friday to lead an investigation that typically takes a year, the agency said.
Tracey told the AP the captains/drivers are Coast Guard-certified, possess commercial driver’s licenses and are required to take continuing education once a month. From her hospital bed, where she was recovering from a broken collarbone, she broke into tears Friday as she recounted the accident.
The amphibious boats are remnants from when the U.S. Army deployed thousands of amphibious landing craft during World War II.
“So far, our investigators are satisfied with the maintenance records” of the duck tours vehicle, Maxwell said.
“This is a business model that requires the driver to be a driver, tour guide, and entertainer at the same time”, said Steve Bulzomi, the attorney for a motorcyclist who was run over and dragged by a duck boat that came up behind him at a stoplight in Seattle in 2011.
Students, faculty and staff of North Seattle College, a diverse school of about 14,000 students, gathered on campus Friday to grieve.
Fifteen people injured in the crash were still being cared for at Harborview Medical Center on Saturday and one was in critical condition, Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman for the Seattle hospital, said in a statement.
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“There are still wounds in our heart”, North Seattle College President Warren Brown said later at a news conference.
