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Washington Regulators Suspend 'Ride The Ducks' Pending Inspection

Dave Pratt of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission listens to a reporter question. He plans to file a formal complaint against Ride the Ducks of Seattle for allegedly failing to implement a manufacturer-recommended axle fix.
Austin Jenkins
/
Northwest News Network
Dave Pratt of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission listens to a reporter question. He plans to file a formal complaint against Ride the Ducks of Seattle for allegedly failing to implement a manufacturer-recommended axle fix.

Citing a lack of confidence, Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission has taken emergency action to suspend Ride the Ducks tours in Seattle.

The move Monday follows last week’s deadly crash involving one of the company’s amphibious vehicles.

Regulators met in a rare emergency session. Dave Pratt, the agency’s director of transportation safety, told commissioners he plans to file a formal complaint against Ride the Ducks of Seattle alleging it failed to fix an axle issue identified by the manufacturer.

“Preliminary indication is that it was an axle issue that might have contributed to the cause of that accident and early indications are we’ve learned was that this company has not made repairs of their axles on any of their vehicles,” Pratt said. “We need to verify that and understand what it means.”

In a statement, the owner of Ride the Ducks of Seattle said the company is “working to understand what happened” and is cooperating fully with investigators. The company had already voluntarily parked its fleet.

State inspectors plan to conduct a thorough examination of each of the Duck vehicles -- a process that could take a couple of weeks.

Copyright 2015 Northwest News Network

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy, as well as the Washington State Legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia."