Coast Guard launches official investigation into Table Rock drownings
On Wednesday the U.S. Coast Guard launched a formal investigation into the cause of deaths of 17 people at Table Rock Lake July 19. A Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) is the Coast Guard’s highest-level of review.
Five members will look into what happened on Stretch Duck 07. That covers all aspects including whether they met regulations, their own oversight, plus “crewmember duties and qualifications, weather conditions and reporting.”
The panel is in charge of finding factors that lead to the sinking, and if there is any evidence of “misconduct, inattention to duty, negligence or willful violation of the law on the part of any licensed or certificated person.”
The Coast Guard released a redacted certificate of inspection for the boat that sank at Table Rock Lake. The inspection, done in Feb. 2017, notes that the boat should not be on the water if wind speeds exceed 35 miles per hour or if waves are larger than two feet.
Weather information shows that winds reached nearly 60 m.p.h. at the lake shortly after the Ride the Ducks boat got onto the water.
The NTSB has agreed the Coast Guard will be an equal partner in the marine death investigation.
“The Coast Guard will conduct a thorough and detailed investigation to identify all potential causal factors associated with this tragedy,” said Capt. Wayne Arguin, chairman of the Marine Board of Investigation.
The MBI’s investigation into the duck boat drownings will be the fourth time the board has convened in the last eight years. The MBI’s previous hearings have involved hundreds of exhibits and weeks of witness testimony. The final reports are then sent to the Coast Guard admiral for review and decision on what actions the military branch will take next. The board completed its final report on the 2015 El Faro commercial ship sinking last year in which 33 crew members died near the Bahamas.
The other two include the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and the deaths of six people on the fishing vessel Destination in Alaska.
Ahead of the board’s findings, the agency sent a bulletin to all inspection officers, owners and operators to review their routes, conditions, company manuals, policies and crew training.
The bulletin calls on Coast Guard inspectors to be “proactive” in communicating with hazard monitors, particularly for severe weather.
Robert Mongeluzzi, attorney for family members of some of the drowning victims who sued Ride the Ducks, said the survivors wanted justice.
“They welcome every appropriate investigative effort that helps to hold all those responsible for the Branson duck boat disaster fully accountable, and to permanently ban these death traps on land and water,” Mongeluzzi told ABC 17 News.
