Six teams from the National Transportation Safety Board are in Seattle to start what will likely be a long investigation into Thursday’s fatal crash on the Aurora Bridge involving a Duck Boat, a charter bus and two cars.
NTSB board member Earl Weener says the federal agency is taking the lead in the investigation.
“At this point it’s chaos starting to form some organization,” said Weener at a press conference at Seattle's Office of Emergency Management.
The crash between a Duck Boat and a motor coach killed four international students from North Seattle College and injured dozens more.
North Seattle College President Warren Brown on Friday identified three of the dead as 18-year-old Privando Putradanto of Indonesia; 36-year-old Mami Sato of Japan; and 49-year-old Claudia Derschmidt of Austria. The identity of 17-year-old Runie Song of China was later released by the King County Medical Examiner's Office.
All were new to the college. They and dozens of other students were on a charter bus tour of the city Thursday before classes were set to begin Monday. Brown says there are "still wounds in our hearts" and that it will take time to heal.
The NTSB has investigated other fatal accidents involving similar amphibious tour vehicles, but those happened in water. This is the first time they’re looking into a serious crash on land.
Weener said the severity of the crash and the fact that it happened on the Aurora bridge caught the agency's attention.
“Yes, that’s one of the aspects, because infrastructure has been an issue for us. But as I also said, we are also interested in the vehicles, in the crash worthiness of motor coaches, particularly an open vessel like the Duck boat.”
The investigation is expected to take up to a year. In the end, the agency will issue a report explaining what caused the crash and suggest ways something like this can be prevented in the future.
“We don’t try to apportion blame,” said Weener, “but we do try to find out what all of the things went wrong and why those things went wrong. So we would like to find out what it is we can do, or have the industry do, or any of the affected organizations do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The NTSB wants to speak to witnesses or those with information about the crash.
The Washington State Utilities Transportation Commission is conducting a separate investigation. Members of the agency will examine the entire fleet of Duck Boats in Seattle as well as Bellair charter buses in Bellingham. Maintenance records will also be checked. If any violations are found fines could be levied.
