State suspends operations of Seattle tour firm after crash

Members of the Utilities and Transportation Commission have gathered in an urgent meeting to remove all “duck boats” for the time being and while investigation is still ongoing.

The Utilities and Transportation Commission (Het), which generally handles marketing fingers hands and arms service providers, said Sunday that it also would likely verify all Seattle Duck official buses and motorist history.

The choice came a day after government agents declared that the duck watercraft included in the accident did not have a pivot fix that was prescribed two years prior for such vehicles. For now at least, Seattleites won’t be seeing the familiar sight (and hearing the familiar sounds) of Ride the Duck vehicles around town.

“We won’t give back any of the armada to benefit until we can show that our armada is all around kept up, street commendable and safe through an autonomous investigation of each Duck vehicle we work”, he said. He did not address whether he had known of the 2013 bulletin before the crash.

Its other affiliates and licensees – in Philadelphia; Stone Mountain Park, Ga.; Branson, Mo.; and Newport, Ky. – had all complied, the company said. Four of the victims were global students while the fifth person, a 20-year-old woman, died on Sunday.

The crash occurred Thursday on Seattle’s Aurora Bridge, a six-lane span with no median.

More than 50 people were hospitalized after the crash.

Ride the Ducks world-wide reconditioned the default yacht in 2005.

Regulators in the state of Washington have suspended operations on a tour company in Seattle on Monday.

La Corte reported from Olympia.