WJZ-TV 13 Baltimore

DATE: 08 Jul 10

PHILADELPHIA ― The Ride the Ducks Amphibious Tours used to run in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, but the company says they lost millions, and after seven years, they pulled out in September of last year.

Mike Schuh has a look at changes made after another high profile fatal crash on the water in 2004.

When the Seaport Taxi was hit by a microburst gust of wind in 2004, it capsized. Five people died, and safety changes have resulted from that tragedy on the water.

Just Wednesday, a barge hit a tourist boat carrying 37 people on the Delaware River, leaving two people unaccounted for and the extent of injuries unclear.

The images in the Delaware River of tourists fighting for their lives brings back memories of similar pictures from the tragedy in the Inner Harbor

After five tourists died on the Seaport Taxi Lady D, the subsequent investigation criticized the boats and the process of declaring them safe for passengers.

The National Transportation Safety Board criticized the weather service for issuing a marine warning 20 minutes after the incident.

Since then, the weather service vowed to provide more and better warnings about the kind of storms that toppled the tour boat.

The Coast Guard was singled out for certifying the doomed boat as a mono hull instead of the less stable pontoon, which allowed for too many passengers.

They also noted the average passenger weight standard of 140 pounds hadn't changed since 1942. Now, a fatter America, weighs in at 168 pounds.

"We believe our recommendations will do a great deal to stop it from ever happening again," said an NTSB spokesperson.

As a result of the Baltimore accident, and NTSB input, the Coast Guard revamped its recommendations regarding pontoon boats that are used as shuttles.

The Coast Guard recommendations include taking into account the increase in passenger weights, not allowing fixed windows, ones which don't open, like those on the Lady D to be permitted and the common sense request of a survivor.

"I don't know why the people in our water taxi didn't get the weather warning ahead of time," said the survivor.

Also included, the recommendation that weather updates be transmitted directly

to boat captains.

The existing water taxi service remaining in Baltimore stressed to WJZ that her company had nothing to do with either of the accidents, and they use completely different kinds of boats.

The Coast Guard recommendations are not yet law, but they are included in a package of laws and regulations making its way through the process in Washington D.C.