Comments

1
We gotta stop those bastards today.
2
"the only place in America where you can still ride the ducks"

... aside from Boston, and probably a bunch of other cities.
but, i guess, don't let that get in the way of your headline.
3
Your headline is wildly incorrect. Ride the Ducks is not the only company running duck tours. You can ride a duck in Washington, DC, as well as Chattanooga, Albany, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Boston, Miami, and Wisconsin Dells, as well as numerous cities in other countries, including Montreal, Toronto, Singapore, Liverpool, Belfast, Dublin, Osaka, Malacca, and Krakow.
4
Ride the Ducks from that particular company. They are still running in the Wisconsin Dells where they were first used as a tourist attraction.
5
There are Duck operations ongoing all over the country, but after this accident, Seattle might be the last with the original WWII vehicles. And really, we should be rid of them too.

Ride the Ducks should get some new amphibious vehicles before something smiliar happens here.
6
OMG! 50,000 people died in car wrecks in 2009! Cars: Fucked! Stop riding in cars people, your life depends on it!
7
Congratulations, Dom - this is the stupidest fucking post on Slog all year so far.
8
I've watched those "ducks" in the water and have always been nervous. They have so little freeboard, even a small wave splashing on their side could swamp the things, with results similar to what we're reading about today.

I won't go near them.
9
Yeah, using them in combat situtions or their test of crossing the English Channel is much more dangerous that cruising around Lake Union.
10
@kitschnsync Nope, the WWII Ducks are used in the Wisconsin Dells, too, for tours on the Wisconsin River.

http://www.wisconsinducktours.com/

$#@#!# things always broke down, because they run on WWII era parts held together with paperclips and a prayer.
11
@3) Sorry about the headline. I've fixed it.
12
They always blast those hits from the '70's and '80's but I've never heard them play "Rock the Boat" by Hue's Corporation. Wonder why?
13
I just googled a few of the other Duck operations, and quite a few are still using the old WWII vehicles.

So yeah, the headline isn't at all accurate.
14
The Washington Post and CNN both report (look it up, Fnarf, that's what a search engine is for) that in fact all but Seattle's Ducks are shut down.

Dom is right.
15
I've worked on boats with a couple of people who used the Ducks back in the day, and every one of them said the things are basically tin cans with wheels. They were built to be cheap and functional, not tourist-level safe.

Which is just as well. If tourists didn't get their feet dirty occasionally, white sneaker manufacturers would go out of business.
16
What was [once] good enough for our troops ought to be good enough for the tourists, dammit.

I predict great opportunities a half-century from now in cruising the mean streets of Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, Newport, Ky., Branson, Mo., etc. with up-armored HumVees and Strykers brimful of vacationers. Children, small animals, and the elderly are forewarned.
17
Will @14, you are completely wrong AGAIN. Nothing at the WaPo or CNN suggests any such thing BECAUSE IT ISN'T TRUE.

At your age, the hope that reading comprehension will suddenly appear is unrealistic. Better for everyone that you just stop posting -- even better, run out and get hit by a train.
18
Safe or not, I hate the fucking things.
19
You shouldn't board a ship without sufficient bulkheads or flotation. If the Ducks can't meet reasonable safety standards, then they should be modified until they do, or taken out of the water and replaced with ships that do.
20
our newest attraction here in philadelphia, "SWIM WITH THE DUCKS" opened yesterday with mixed reviews!!
21
@17 sorry that reality doesn't agree with you.

By the way, the EPA announced a few new sets of regs nobody is talking about today. Going to be fun reading about it next week after the talk shows pick it up.
22
WOAH! I didn't know MURDER could happen on a ride the ducks ride! I would have at least feigned interest in doing it if I knew that!
23
Oh, people are always dying of some bullshit or other. Liberals like to argue that this means we shouldn't be (let's say) firing our guns wildly into the air, but consider this: they chose to be liberals.
24
Please go away The Duck!
25
@21, both CNN and WaPo maintain websites. Please feel free to provide a link to any page therein that supports your contention that all duck boat tourist operations in the US besides Seattle's have been suspended.

I'll just wait over here.
26
where is the problem,
sinking Ducks only kill tourists.
nature selects!
27
I'm with the others. They're an eyesore, get rid of em. Tourists can suck it and use a regualr boat.
28
I used to see them rocketing down Aurora going 70. Always wondered how they were legal.
29
If Ducks are outlawed, only outlaws will ride Ducks.

And my middle finger will get a rest.
30
As I understand it, the vehicles as well as the operators are inspected and licensed by both the d.o.t. and the u.s. coast guard. While being subject to the oversight of two government agencies should lead to safe and thouroughly inspected operations, it actually creates huge loopholes that allow for poorly equiped machines and crew, which shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a commercial waterway.
31
Would you let your daughter marry a man who Rides a Duck?
32
In the nineties, someone died in a paddle boat accident on Green Lake. Yet those deattrap paddleboats are still allowed operate, and the Stranger is silent! Conspiracy? You be the judge.

Please wait...

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