The owner of local tourist attraction Chattanooga Ducks said a tugboat collision in Philadelphia that sank a duck boat probably won't affect his business in the Scenic City.
The Philadelphia operation, called Ride the Ducks, is owned by Herschend Family Entertainment Co., which is not affiliated with the Chattanooga attraction.
However, Chattanooga Ducks owner Alex Moyers said the industry is so small that any accident "looks bad on everybody in the business." He estimated there are about two dozen duck boat operations nationwide.
"Any time you're carrying passengers for money, on any boat, you're responsible for those people," Mr. Moyer said. "And their lives are in your hands."
On Wednesday, the 37-passenger amphibious vehicle traveling in the Delaware River in Philadelphia collided with a tugboat pushing a barge, said Keith Holloway, a National Transportation and Safety Board spokesman. Two passengers were unaccounted for as of late Thursday. The NTSB is investigating the collision and still is determining how it occurred, Mr. Holloway said.
WHAT IS A DUCK BOAT?Duck boats were originally used for the D-Day invasion in 1944 to supply troops onshore. They can be driven on land and in water, and are now mostly used as tourist vehicles. The Chattanooga Ducks take passengers on a narrated historical tour of the city and navigates the Tennessee River under all four bridges.Source: Alex Moyers, Chattanooga Ducks owner
Mr. Moyers said the locally owned operation takes special precautions to prevent such collisions. When he bought the company three years ago, he instituted a policy that captains cannot operate in the main ship channel where barges operate.
"We cross over the channel sometimes," he said. "If you want to go over to Coolidge Park or the Delta Queen, you have to cross the channel, but we don't operate in it."
The 13-year-old company also has taken other precautionary safety measures, such as decreasing its passenger capacity, carrying distress flare and smoke signals and completing a thorough mechanical checklist each day to ensure the vessel is operating properly.
"The whole thing was to just make it better," said Mr. Moyers, who has been a boat captain for five years. "You can't be too safe."
Nearly three weeks ago, two men died in Chattanooga when barges being pushed by a Serodino-operated tugboat collided with their fishing boat on the Tennessee River.