The Ride the Ducks vehicle involved in Thursday’s deadly bridge crash had its left front axle “sheared off”, and the inside of the wheel well was covered with spatters of red fluid, federal investigators have found.
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Earl Weener of the National Transportation Safety Board told reporters the 1945 DUKW, or duck, boat lost its left front axle.
Four global students died in the crash Thursday after witnesses said the duck boat crossed the center line and veered into the oncoming bus.
Together with 41 other students and staff members of the school, they were riding on a charter bus along Washington state Highway 99 on Thursday when it was hit by the amphibious tour vehicle on the Aurora Avenue Bridge.
A witness behind the duck boat told NBC station KING5 that the duck boat was moving into the left lane when “it seemed to lurch suddenly” before striking another vehicle and then slamming into the bus.
Seattle police conducted a preliminary evaluation of both drivers following the crash and said they did not find any evidence of impairment. The amphibious vehicle tours are offered throughout the United States. State officials have said the Ride the Ducks fleet was inspected in 2012, and passed.
Weener said it’s too soon to know how the axle was damaged, or if it happened before the collision.
“It’s way too early to say anything about a probable cause”, Weener 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.
“For what reason yet we don’t know, he said”. From her hospital bed, where she was recovering from a broken collarbone, she broke into tears Friday as she recounted the accident.
North Seattle College has more 1,000 global students from more than 50 countries.
Meanwhile, 15 people remain hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center, spokeswoman Susan Greggs said.
The duck boat tour operator issued a statement: “Ride the Ducks of Seattle wishes to express its sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the people who were killed and those that were injured”, it said.
The students attended North Seattle College, which said several students are in critical condition, while other students and a North employee had serious injuries.
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“The NTSB investigation will really help us understand whether it is the structure itself, or the vehicles, or a combination of the two”, he said.
