Ride the Ducks Crash: Second Body and Duck Boat Pulled from Delaware River

A second body was recovered from the Delaware River Friday afternoon after salvage crews pulled up the duck boat that was hit by a barge and sunk on Wednesday. While the body has not yet been positively identified, it is most likely that of 20-year-old Szabolcs Prem. Early Friday morning, the body of 16-year-old Dora Schwendtner was recovered two miles south of the crash site, just beyond the Walt Whitman Bridge. Schwendtner and Prem were part of a group of 13 Hungarian students being hosted by the Marshallton United Methodist Church in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Action News reported that the second body was first spotted this morning when salvage crews went out with a barge and crane to pull up the duck boat. The body, which appeared to have come up with the tide, submerged before salvage crews could reach it, and became lodged under the barge. When efforts to retrieve it failed, the proceeded to recover the duck boat and put onto the barge. When the barge pulled away, the body resurfaced and floated down the river, where Police pulled it out of the water about a block downriver. Several unused life vests floated up as the boat was retrieved. The amphibious boat will be thoroughly inspected for clues as to why it malfunctioned. Thirty-five passengers and two crewmen were rescued when a barge crashed into the duck boat while it sat disabled and waiting for help on Wednesday.

Tales of the tragedy from survivors are still surfacing. The Associated Press reported that passenger Tina Rosebrook of Davidson, N.C., said she was initially under the bow of the barge and just had time to put life jackets on her 10-year-old daughter and 12-year-old niece, but not herself. "It hit us once, the barge did and I grabbed ahold of the girls and at that point it kind of turned us sideways, hit us again and we started to go under. As soon as we hit the water, the girls were flung out of my arms." A life jacket was floating by when she surfaced and she grabbed it.

Rosebrook and her family were quickly removed from the water by police rescue boats. She said while her daughter still had on a life jacket, her niece was holding onto a floating seat cushion. Rosebrook said the duck boat captain let an employee he said "was in training" drive the boat, but when the boat started to smoke, he was removed from the driver's seat. Rosebrook says the captain never told passengers to put on life vests, even when he saw the barge approaching. She said he radioed to somebody and the last thing she heard was, "Whoa, whoa, whoa."

Several issues and questions arise from this tragedy. First, why are people not required to wear life jackets on commercial vehicles such as these duck boats? Just having them on board is useless in a violent crash where people can be injured. Having been thrown out of a boat as a child, I know how easy it is to bang your head and be knocked semi- or unconscious. Without a life jacket, you will drown if no one grabs you immediately. If a person is unconscious, but wearing a life jacket, properly fastened, they have a much better chance of surviving. It is apparent that none of these people had time to properly fasten the jackets onto their children or themselves. I have also been swimming in the Delaware River as a healthy teenager, and found the currents extremely swift. It's a miracle more people didn't drown, as some of them were not able to grab a life jacket before the barge hit, nor grab one once in the water.

Second, why didn't the captain of the boat immediately call the Coast Guard? If their radio was disabled, as some reports suggested, a cell phone call to his bosses to call the Guard, only a mile away from the crash site, or even the Police Marine Unit which patrols the Delaware, would have been safer than waiting for another duck boat to tow them in. Third, why didn't the tug have radar to see what was in front of it?

Fourth, some reports state that the canopies on these duck boats can prevent people from escaping if the boat overturns. It was suggested that these canopies should be lowered when the boats go into the water. While they do protect people from the sun, anyone heading out on the water on a summer day should be properly prepared with hats, visors and sunglasses.

While it is a miracle that more people didn't die or weren't severely injured in this tragedy, it should never have happened. A small vehicle like a duck boat, stalled in the middle of the Delaware River's commercial zone, is indeed a "sitting duck."

Previous Reports: Philadelphia Duck Boat Hit by Barge; Sunken Duck Boat Located in Delaware, Two Still Missing; Body of Duck Boat Crash Victim Recovered from Delaware River; Second Body Spotted; Duck Boat Tour Passengers Describe Crash and Sinking in Delaware River; Updates: Duck Boat Crash - NTSB Interviews Reveal Calls for Help and Alarm Attempts Failed; Sources: News.Yahoo; Action News; CBS.com