New video of the tragic July 2010 duck boat colision on the Delaware River in Philadelphia has emerged, offering a new glimpse of the broken down tourist vessel just moments before and after the collision.
The video was released by the attorneys of the families of two Hungarian students killed in the collision days before the civil trial for a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of the victims is set to begin.
The NTSB’s official report on the incident found that the mate operating the tugboat M/V Caribbean Sea failed to maintain a proper lookout while pushing a barge upriver on the Delaware and was distracted by repeated use of a cell phone and lap top computer in dealing with a family emergency. The mate plead guilty to one count of misconduct of a ship operator causing death, the equivalent to involuntary manslaughter, and was sentenced to 1 year in prison and revocation of his license.
Lawyers for the victims’ families say passengers were not told to put on life preservers until just before the crash, and contend the vessel lacked emergency air horns, radio and had overhead canopies that trapped the two victims when the boat capsized.
