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Satanica

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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/1...-rock-lake-near-branson-missouri/63-575684486
Eleven people are dead, five are missing, seven others are hospitalized after a "mass casualty" drowning incident Thursday on Table Rock Lake in Missouri.

According to Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader, a tourist boat sank with 31 people on board.

Rader said an off-duty sheriff's deputy was working security at the scene and helped rescue survivors. Recovery efforts continued after dark, with some passengers still unaccounted for. A dive team from Western Taney County was in the water and a team from the Missouri State Highway Patrol was on the way, as well.
[....]
Rader said weather was thought to have caused a Ride the Ducks tourist boat to capsize. Weather reports said high winds hit the area at about 7 p.m.

Jim Pulley, owner of Sea Tow Table Rock Lake, said the storm hit the lake with 80 mph winds that kicked up waves 5 feet high.

He said his Sea Tow boats were helping with crowd control near the site where the Duck boat capsized a short distance behind the Showboat Branson Belle, which was tied to its dock.

“The Ducks have a ramp access where they put in, and when the wind hit it pushed the boat right square behind the Branson Belle,” Pulley said.

Pulley said several docks also broke loose during the wind storm, and the Water Patrol helped rescue people from two personal watercraft boats that capsized in the wind.

 
I got a sinking feeling watching that video. Too soon?

Some news sites are saying those duck boats were equipped with life vests. I guess the passengers didn't have a chance to put them on.
 
Weather can come up so fast on big lakes. I've been caught while out in a small sailboat, and it's terrifying. I was certain we'd either be struck by lightning or capsized by waves. It took FOREVER to get back to shore. Just be careful about taking this sort of tour on large bodies of water. If they don't have life jackets, don't go. If they do have them, put one on when you get on the boat. Don't wait until there's an emergency.
 
Should never have been out on the water in those conditions, weather changes fast but not that fast
Had to be iffy when they started and a bad decision was made to go ahead with the tour.
I’m out in the nasty Pacific Ocean almost weekly and if strong winds are expected I stay on land
 
Got some lovely video of reflections of gawkers.

"Oh migosh...oh migosh....oh migod..."
STFU!
We don't need the commentary and turn the damn cam sideways fool.

Dumb name for these watercraft.
Ducks float.
These things are more like busboats.
 
https://fox2now.com/2018/11/08/gran...-tourist-boat-that-sank-and-killed-17-people/
The captain of a duck boat that capsized in July on a Missouri lake, killing 17 people, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the wreck.

Kenneth Scott McKee, 51, faces 17 counts related to "acts of misconduct, negligence or inattention to duty," one for each victim, according to the indictment, which was announced Thursday by the US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, Tim Garrison.

The violations are colloquially known as "seaman's manslaughter," Garrison said.

A federal grand jury found that McKee failed to properly assess incoming weather before and while he put the vessel in the water, entered the vessel on the water as severe weather approached, failed to instruct passengers to put on personal flotation devices and operated the duck boat in violation of its conditions and limitations, among other acts, according to the indictment.

The federal criminal investigation into the deadly wreck on Table Rock Lake, near the tourist hub of Branson, Missouri, began after the US Coast Guard in July determined the deaths resulted from the captain's actions. The investigation is ongoing, Garrison told reporters Thursday.

McKee's attorney and Ripley Entertainment, which runs the duck boat tours called Ride the Ducks Branson, did not immediately respond Thursday CNN's requests for comment.

McKee is not in custody, Garrison said, adding that the charges announced Thursday are the first criminal indictments related to the incident. The US attorney would not say whether McKee has been cooperating with the probe.
[....]
In case of a conviction, each count against McKee carries possible prison time of up to 10 years and a fine of as much as $250,000.

McKee's actions related to the day's weather also have been scrutinized by the National Transportation Safety Board, which in July noted, "The captain made a verbal reference to looking at the weather radar prior to the trip," citing video recorded on the boat.

The first 911 call regarding the duck boat sinking came at 7:09 p.m. on July 19.

According to weather data, a severe thunderstorm had traveled hundreds of miles, prompting severe-weather alerts in the hours before it hit the lake.

Counties northwest of the Branson area were issued thunderstorm warnings at 5:45 p.m. The Branson area was placed under a severe thunderstorm warning shortly after 6:30 p.m.
[....]
 
A King County jury on Thursday awarded about $123 million to the victims and their families in the 2015 Ride the Ducks crash that killed five people and injured more than 60 others.

The jury determined after a four-month civil trial that Ride the Ducks International — the Branson, Missouri-based manufacturer of the Duck amphibious vehicle — bore 67 to 70 percent of the responsibility for the crash. The jury also found that Ride the Ducks of Seattle, which operated the tour vehicle, was 30 to 33 percent at fault.

Awards to each of the 40 plaintiffs will range from $40,000 to $25 million.


The Superior Court jury determined that two others named in the suit, the city of Seattle and the state of Washington, were not at fault in the crash, which happened when the World War II-era duck vehicle crossed the centerline of Seattle’s Aurora Bridge and plowed into a charter bus full of international students on Sept. 24, 2015.

The amount awarded for economic and noneconomic damages was less than the $300 million requested by the lead plaintiffs’ attorney, Karen Koehler, in her closing argument last month.

But Koehler said she was pleased with the jurors’ decision and said they did exactly what they were asked to do.

She said the jurors believed the plaintiffs’ stories and believed them. They recognized, Koehler added, that even the victims who suffered less severe physical injuries “were not OK.”
[....]
Koehler said she hopes the verdict will lead to Ducks vehicles being taken off the road.

In an emailed statement, Ride the Ducks of Seattle stressed the changes the company has made in its operations since the deadly crash.
[....]

 
FTA - A judge recommended in September that the charges be dismissed for "lack of admiralty jurisdiction," commonly known as the Seaman's manslaughter statute. Judge David P. Rush noted in his reasoning for the dismissal that Table Rock Lake, where the incident occurred, is not considered navigable as a matter of admiralty law. The judge also recommended the case should be prosecuted at the state level rather than in a federal court should it continue.
 
his reasoning for the dismissal that Table Rock Lake, where the incident occurred, is not considered navigable as a matter of admiralty law.

Would someone please explain what this means because the lake was certainly being navigated at the time whether or not it's considered navigable by Admiralty Law.
 
@cubby - From my brief reading, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, Congress granted to the (federal) district courts exclusive original jurisdiction in civil cases in admiralty and maritime matters. While the 1789 Act specified that district court jurisdiction would be "exclusive," the statute included a clause "saving to suitors the right of a common law remedy, where the common law is competent to give it."

From Cornell's Legal Information Institute -
The courts and Congress seek to create a uniform body of admiralty law both nationally and internationally in order to facilitate commerce. The federal courts derive their exclusive jurisdiction over this field from the Judiciary Act of 1789 and from Article III, § 2 of the U.S. Constitution. Congress regulates admiralty partially through the Commerce Clause. American admiralty law formerly applied only to American tidal waters. It now extends to any waters navigable within the United States for interstate or foreign commerce. In such waters admiralty jurisdiction includes maritime matters not involving interstate commerce, including recreational boating.

These courts functioned separately from courts of law and equity. With the Judiciary Act, though, Congress placed admiralty under the jurisdiction of the federal district courts. Although admiralty shares much in common with the civil law, it is separate from it. Common law does not act as binding precedent on admiralty courts, but it and other law may be used when no law on point is available.

Parties subject to admiralty may not contract out of admiralty jurisdiction, and states may not infringe on admiralty jurisdiction either judicially or legislatively. Since admiralty courts, however, are courts of limited jurisdiction (which does not extend to non-maritime matters), 28 USC § 1333(1), the "Savings to Suitors Clause," does provide for concurrent state jurisdiction so that non-admiralty remedies will not be foreclosed. Moreover, state courts may have jurisdiction where the matter is primarily local.


TL;DR The judge said that State courts are better suited to hear the case.
 
navigable waters
According to the Code of Federal Regulations section dealing with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (www.usace.army.mil/), which is given jurisdiction over them, navigable waters are “those waters that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide and/or are presently used, or have been used in the past,or may be susceptible for use to transport interstate or foreign commerce. A determination of navigability, once made, applies laterally over the entire surface of the water body, and is not extinguished by later actions or events which impede or destroy navigable capacity.”Property owners wishing to build boat piers or other structures extending into navigable waters must obtain a permit from the Department of the Army.

The Complete Real Estate Encyclopedia by Denise L. Evans, JD & O. William Evans, JD. Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
 
And the State finally weighs in -

A local prosecutor on Friday filed a total of 63 felony criminal charges against three employees over a July 2018 tourist boat accident on a Missouri lake that killed 17 people.

The charges were filed in Stone County against the captain, the general manager and the manager on duty the day of the accident for the Ride the Ducks attraction on Table Rock Lake near the tourist mecca of Branson.

The charges were announced by County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Selby and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.

The charges against captain Kenneth Scott McKee, of Verona, general manager Curtis Lanham, of Galena, and manager on duty Charles Baltzell, of Kirbyville, came seven months after a federal judge dismissed charges filed by federal prosecutors, concluding that they did not have jurisdiction.

 

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