Watch: Horrifying video of fatal tour boat collision released

Telegraph.co.uk

A video of the horrifying moment a huge barge crushed a tour boat in Philadelphia has been released by lawyers for the families of two victims of the accident.

Two Hungarian students were killed when the vessel, pushed by a tug boat, sailed into a stationary amphibious tour boat on the Delaware River, forcing over three dozen people into the water.

Lawyers for the parents of the victims, Dora Schwendtner, 16, and Szabolcs Prem, 20, have released the video of the crash, which happened in July 2010, just days before civil cases into their deaths are due to open in America.

The footage showing the barge pushing the tour boat underwater forms part of the official record compiled by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigated the crash.

According to the Telegraph, it was reported the the tour boat has overheated due to the removal of a radiator cap, and that the captain mistook the steam for an engine fire, before anchoring the boat in the busy spot.

The victims' families have filed wrongful death lawsuits against K-Sea Transportation, which operated the big boat driving the barge; Ride the Ducks, which operated the tour boat; and the city of Philadelphia, which owned the barge.

In November 2011, the tug boat captain Matthew Devlin was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to the maritime equivalent of involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors said he was distracted by mobile phone calls amid a family emergency while sailing.

Lawyers for the victims' families say the vessel lacked an emergency air horn, and that overhead canopies trapped the two victims underwater when the boat capsized.



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