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Duck Boat in Missouri Disaster was Designed by Entrepreneur With no Engineering Training

posted by martyb on Thursday July 26 2018, @08:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-it-walks-like-a-duck,-sinks-like-a-duck,-oh,-wait... dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The duck boat that sank in a Missouri lake last week, killing 17 people, was built based on a design by a self-taught entrepreneur who had no engineering training, according to court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

The designer, entrepreneur Robert McDowell, completed only two years of college and had no background, training or certification in mechanics when he came up with the design for "stretch" duck boats more than two decades ago, according to a lawsuit filed over a roadway disaster in Seattle involving a similar duck boat in 2015.

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  • (Score: 2) by deadstick on Thursday July 26 2018, @12:11PM (2 children)

    by deadstick (5110) on Thursday July 26 2018, @12:11PM (#713034)

    We drove unsafe auto designs for a helluva lot longer than that. As for personal flotation devices: those would have worked splendidly in the original WW2 DUKW's. But put an enclosure over the boat, and you have a deathtrap for anyone who hasn't been trained to use them effectively.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @02:48PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @02:48PM (#713125)

    We did, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that the engineering necessary to make them safer hadn't been developed yet. The biggest things have been highly advanced technology like ABS and ESC which greatly reduce the likelihood of a vehicle tipping over or going out of the intended path of travel while braking.

    A lot of those deaths are also unrelated to the technology, for much of that time it wasn't illegal to drink and drive and there wasn't much of an effort to inform people about how dangerous it was until sometime in the '80s. Also, it wasn't until sometime in the '80s that it become legally required to wear a seat belt.

    Also, unlike the ducks there just wasn't a particularly viable alternative for longer trips back then and even in town, having horses has it's own set of logistical issues.

    • (Score: 2) by deadstick on Friday July 27 2018, @01:42AM

      by deadstick (5110) on Friday July 27 2018, @01:42AM (#713502)

      having horses has it's own set of logistical issues.

      The best thing one can say about 50's cars is that horses are positively lethal in comparison. I doubt there's any more dangerous "vehicle" that's ever been used for routine personal transportation.

      One of my mom's childhood memories was of a man lying dead with a horseshoe print on his face...