Company says it was told duck boats were OK before sinking

BRANSON, Mo. (AP) — An entertainment company that owned a duck boat involved in a fatal sinking on a Missouri lake last summer disputes that an independent investigator told it its vehicles did not comply with a government standard.

Ripley Entertainment hired Steve Paul in 2017 before it bought the boats from Missouri company Ride the Ducks International to determine whether they met the Department of Transportation's regulations, Paul said.

Suzanne Smagala, a spokeswoman for Ripley Entertainment, told the Associated Press Paul passed the boats in his report. Paul has said he inspected 24 boats of the 40 boats that Ride the Ducks was selling when it ceased operations in Branson, and he found all of them deficient under the department's standard because of the location of their tailpipes.

Florida-based Ripley ultimately purchased 22 of the 40 boats. One sank last July when a storm hit as the boat was on Table Rock Lake, killing 17 people.

Read more: http://www.newstribune.com/news/missouri/story/2019/may/12/company-says-it-was-told-duck-boats-were-ok-before-sinking/778428/