Why No Thread about the DUKW boat sinking (killing 17) in Branson, Missouri?

Seems like a fairly notable tragedy in a pretty well known tourist town. Amy and I were up there just a few weeks ago and saw several DUKW (Duck boats) around town and on the lake. I had always been interested in taking a Duck Tour but Amy has been extremely adverse to the idea since one sank in Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, AR. in 1999 killing 13 people.

There seems to be lots of questions about who has regulatory jurisdiction over Duck boats. And because almost all of them have canopies over them now (to protect from the sun mainly, occasionally rain) they aren't required to make the passengers wear life jackets because the belief is that if one sinks the life jackets combined with the canopy could trap people under water and kill them.

Duck boats sit very low in the water so when they sink they're gone fast. And the one in Branson was on the lake where a fast moving thunderstorm whipped up winds near hurricane force unexpectedly.

I saw numerous news articles on The Weather Channel talking about the weather when the boat got hit - it was not a typical storm front so they really did get caught off guard - very tragic.

Took one on the Charles River in Boston. Wasn't a huge fan owing to the amount of water that kept lapping over the back of the "boat".

Apparently none of the seventeen had life jackets, WTF?

One of my sisters complained about the exact same thing when riding one in Hot Springs.

Like I said, they had life jackets aboard but they routinely tell the passengers NOT to put the life jackets on because they fear that people with life jackets will be trapped under the canopy. The buoyancy serving to trap them and drown them.

Some experts claim that having the passengers in life jackets would've saved lives. Other experts say it would've raised the death toll.

All of the video's I've seen of the incident show the vehicle near piers and a large paddle wheel-looking ship. I don't know why the driver didn't head for any of those to tie up and at least offload the passengers.

I don't know though they are pretty slow in the water and definitely not made for rough water. One consultant had warned previously that in rough "seas", water could back up the exhaust and kill the engine. Don't know if that's what happened or not.

Very sad. Especially the nine dead all from one family.

They were designed to swim in the ocean (one even crossed the English Channel).

Judging from the video, the vehicle was taking on lots of water and the bilge pump wasn't keeping up (assuming it was turned on or if one was even fitted).

They were just Missourians.

Isn't Branson Missouri like Vegas, if it was run by Ned Flanders?

What makes you think that? Lots of local vacation spots have are full of nonlocals.

A somewhat isolated camping and picnic area not far from where I live is(was) known as Albert Pike. Several years ago it suffered a devastating "500 year flash flood" at night that killed several campers. Only one of the victims was from Arkansas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Arkansas_floods

Yeah, this was a tragedy all around. One minute, you and your family are having fun on vacation, and then next, everyone's dead.

I'll freely admit I've had a fear of large bodies of water for years. Large bodies to me being defined as something I know I don't have a prayer of swimming to safety across (50-100 yards, I've never put it to a life or death test).

Thalassophobia?

The fear of two arms?

Good point. I guess we could hope that they were mostly Arkansans.

Precisely you stupid trannycocksucker!

If you're in Branson, aren't you already dead inside?

That's a reasonable fear, as far as I'm concerned. I can safely swim up to about 25-50 meters, but then I'm in trouble after that, so I don't like swimming in large bodies of water, either. If I'm at the beach, I will wade into the ocean up to my knees, and no further. Undertow can kick your ass pretty quickly.

You don't put life jackets on inside a boat/ship. Same reason on an airplane they don't want you to inflate the life jacket in the plane during a water landing. It's very difficult if not impossible to get out in an emergency if water is coming in. (plus with a vest on you might not fit the exit.

In a boat like a DUCK you'd be trapped. What they needed was something to blow the canopy off the boat in the event of an emergency.

That's odd, because *every* STL meteorologist was saying that this was very much a PREDICTED storm, and they shouldn't have been out on the lake in it at all!

13 now.

oh there were storms predicted in the area, but this one had very strong winds well ahead of where the actual "thunder & lightning/heavy rains" were. In other words they thought they had more time to get back to safety than they normally would with an approaching storm. But it was driving me crazy watching the reports but not knowing WTF a "duck boat" was! I was in my hospital bed watching it on TV and so I couldn't google it since I don't have a smart phone. All I could picture was this (see pic) and if you had a large group of people on one of these, I think I cracked the case wide open.

I'm fairly certain that Branson, Missouri is not even in the top 100 vacation destinations for 99.999999% of humanity.

So...
They have life jackets, but the canopy renders the use of such a basic safety device into a hazard.
The boat itself requires constant pumping due to wash and is unsuitable for all but the calmest surfaces.
Despite there being only one citation of a similar tragedy, we can be fairly certain this has happened over the history of the design's use.
Maybe the should change the name to Darwin boats?

Two years ago, Branson's Convention & Visitor's Bureau reported a record growth in tourism, with over 9 million visitors. It may not be Vegas, Disney, or LA/NY/Chi/SF, but it ain't chump change for tourism.

it's a popular spot for Americans, foreign tourists not very much - as far as I know they don't promote themselves to a foreign market.

It's pretty well known in the U.S., especially across the midwest. Branson has the nickname "the live music show capital of the world" because along its main strip there are more than 50 live theaters with everything from country music to rave, magic acts, Chinese acrobats (really), and so on, including theaters started by Andy Williams, Glen Campbell, and Tony Orlando, Dolly Parton has restaurant/live show attraction there (as well as in Pigeon Forge, TN, a *beautiful* little town nestled in the Smoky Mountains), and gets about 7-9 million visitors a year. So while it may not be world renowned, plenty of people know about it.

So is herpes. Not sayn' anythin' just sayin'.