KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Family members who lost loved ones when a duck boat sank in Missouri’s Table Rock Lake earlier this month have filed suit against the companies involved in the incident, claiming that the boat’s operators knew that their boat designs and weather conditions made the July 19 excursion unsafe.
Seventeen people died when the boat sank as powerful winds swept through the area. Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said the victims ranged in age from 1 to 76 years old and included nine members of the Coleman family. Eleven of the Colemans were on the Ride the Ducks Branson boat when it sank after traveling to the city for an annual family road trip, according to multiple reports.
The federal lawsuit was filed Sunday on behalf of two members of the Indiana-based Coleman family. Others killed were from Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday that family members were seeking $100 million in damages as part of the lawsuit. In the filing, family members said Ride the Ducks Branson owner Ripley Entertainment, "recklessly risked the lives of its passengers for purely financial reasons."
“Despite being aware of impending severe weather conditions, Ripley intentionally decide to take the Duck Boat out onto Table Rock Lake instead of cancelling the tour and refunding the patrons’ money,” the lawsuit said. “This tragedy was the predictable and predicted result of decades of unacceptable, greed-driven, and willful ignorance of safety by the Duck Boat industry in the face of specific and repeated warnings that their Duck Boats are death traps for passengers and pose grave danger to the public on water and on land.”
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Thirty-one people were onboard the duck boat when it sank July 19.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.