Manufactured Negligence: The Duck 6 - Aurora Bridge Collision

▶GROUND NEWS: Compare Diverse News Sources - Think Critically ground.news/brick ▶ATTORNEY TOM: youtube.com/@AttorneyTom EL FARO Legal Aftermath: https://youtu.be/BjiGHV3Si3A ▶DUCK BOAT SAGA: STRETCH DUCK 7 - Branson: https://youtu.be/0yG5C94qM2Y DUCK 34 - Philly: youtube.com/live/bx9ErlWG1uM

I get the feeling these might not be the best tour boats after all.

The second you showed the picture of the tab welded to the cast axle housing, I damn near screamed. I'm an engineer, and that exact kind of modification is as an example used to teach engineering students about fatigue failure in welded joints. If you weld a small plate to larger structure like that, flexing of the underlying structure will load that plate. Instead of all of the stress going through that big casting, now a significant chunk of it is going through that tiny little plate. While the global stress on the casting may decrease when you add a plate like that, the local stress on the plate itself is going to be dramatically higher. You aren't fixing the problem by adding a plate like that; you're just welding on an initiation point for fatigue cracks. That tab wasn't just insufficient to prevent the failure; I would bet my left nut that it caused the failure. It wouldn't have mattered if it was the nicest weld in the world; this exact failure was guaranteed from the moment they welded that plate on. They also clearly understood this, because the collar welded to the exterior of the knuckle was a relatively good design. I don't love that it involved a structural weld between cast iron and steel (welding steel to cast iron without creating cracks is difficult, even for very skilled welders), and placing a welded joint in bending like that is generally a no-no, but it would not have created the same kind of stress concentration issue the tab design did. While there is a lot of negligence to go around on this one, the decision to weld that tab on is a level of negligence bordering on criminal.

i was an EMT on an AMR ambulance responding to this call that day. We were there with seattle fire, we are part of the city 911 system. My rig might be in some of the pictures. We made three trips to and from the trauma hospital with our rig filed with yellow and red patients. it was brutal. the worst luck ever of that ducks bow being pelvis height of the bus. i cant describe some of the stuff and injuries i saw in good company... probably the roughest call i have ever been on in my career. It was carnage. The DUKW peeles that bus apart like a can opener. I've always hated both aurora bridge and the duck tours. I took a tour once and they felt genuinely unsafe on the road. And the aurora Bridge is just twrrifyingly narrow, I avoided driving across it at all costs, that lack of a center dividing barrier felt like this was inevitable.

Was recently in Guatemala and rode a water taxi that looked a lot like the Ducks, only without the wheels. The canopy was welded down to the boat, with four windows you could barely crawl out of on each side, and an open front. During rain, they velcroed tarps (from the outside) on all of the windows and the front half. The back half was fully welded down, other than two door sized holes, both with tarps velcroed over them as well. Whole thing was basically a fully enclosed box during storms, and had only one viable escape route otherwise. Water still got in, of course. Having seen your videos, I realized this was a death trap and sat way up front. And was the only one with my life vest in my lap, not worn. Was not about to become a statistic. Every ferry on lake Atitlán was designed this way. It's only a matter of time until a boat sinks.

I live in Seattle and drive over this bridge usually a couple times a week. there are so many collisions on this bridge and the photos simply don't show how narrow the bridge is in person. our metro busses have to split two lanes when they cross. it mind blowing to me that they have not erected a median or reduced it to a four lane road.

I live near Seattle, I actually know the guy who ended up buying this Duck from the NTSB. What's really amazing is the little amount of damage the Duck itself received, especially considering the condition of the bus. He is currently in the process of restoring it to its original military condition.

Fire dept got there in 4 minutes after the call?? That's incredible communication

When i was like 8 in the 90s people talked about how dangerous these things were. Can't believe they are still in operation.

A 4-minute response time is utterly insane! The Seattle FD is on top of their game.

Oh god. I was on the Aurora Bridge that day on a bike ride with a friend. I didnt see the impact. But I heard it and saw the immediate aftermath before even the police and rescue got there (we passed it a few minutes later). Im shaking watching this. These things are a nightmare. Seattle banned them finally. The locals hated them even before this massive accident. They were known to be dangerous to even drive around, they would turn into drivees in the next over lane, bicyclists and pedestrians. I had one nearly hit me making an illegal turn while I was legally crossing in a crosswalk I cant count how many times I saw a wreck caused by them. This was one of the worst accidents I have personally ever seen and Ive seen crazy I5 wrecks. I think not being in a car made it that much worse. And yeah. The aurora bridge is narrow. And no one, I mean no ones going 40. And theres no barrier so youre on a narrow bridge with oncoming traffic coming right at you with no barrier. Im shaking watching this. But I want to know what actually happened. I avoided reading about it in the paper because I would see it in my head- it had happened too recently then. But I think after all these years I want to know.

I ran a barge company on Lake Union, we sometimes also used the Sunnyside boat ramp. It was always kinda scary how distracted the Captains of the Ducks were. A 4000 ton gravel barge came through the lake weekly. I saw on a few occasions where the Ducks were plainly in the way of said gravel barge. I also remember the day this accident happened. You can imagine how many emergency vehicles were packed onto that bridge. Sad sad day.

I live in the Seattle area and I remember how horrifying this accident was. My husband and I had thought doing one of their tours would be a fun thing to do - I'm glad we never got around to doing it.

If you lived in Seattle when this happened, this day is seared into your memory. I did wonder how the duck caused so much damage and injuries so finding out the nose of the duck went upward and inside the motor coach, answered that question. Well researched video. And, oh yeah, the aurora bridge is very sketchy to cross, always makes me real nervous.

Seeing the damage the front of Duck 6 did to that motorcoach is horrifying. I cant imagine that kind of terror on the road. That bus driver did everything he could to avoid that crash. RIP to those poor victims. This could have absolutely been avoided... Those duck boat tours all need to be banned. Thank you for another great video and always paying respects to the victims. I'm glad the Seattle boats shut down at least. I went to Boston a few days ago and those boats are still operating sadly. My wife wanted to get on, but I said no and directed her to these videos.

Thank you for sharing this tragic accident and the story behind it. We in Ottawa had a "Duck" accident as well. In 2002 there was a sinking of an amphibious tour vehicle (called the "Lady Duck") leading to 4 deaths. However, I don't think the vehicle was one of those military vehicles - I think it was a private conversion of a Ford pickup truck.

its always so disgusting how companies never want to take responsibility for their accidents, even in the most oblivious cases. It just shows most corporations, whether you work for them or pay them, absolutely do NOT care about you whatsoever, even in the case of death.

That bridge has extremely narrow lanes. Even when I’m on my motorcycle it’s quite scary how close I am to oncoming traffic.

this one was local to me, I'll never forget how shocking it was. looking forward to seeing your thoughts on it.

I taught at a community college in the Seattle area at the time, and a few of my colleagues knew some of these students, who often transferred between area schools, personally. It was a shock to all of us. The Aurora Bridge's lanes are so incredibly narrow. They definitely tried to cram too many lanes into an old bridge. It's terrifying driving next to a car much bigger than my own on a normal day, and the ducks are even worse. I'm just surprised there aren't more catastrophic crashes like this one.