SEATTLE – Brian Tracey, president and CEO of Ride the Ducks Seattle, is still in the middle of a long road back for his company after a collision on the Aurora Bridge on September 24, 2015.
The front axle on one of the company's amphibious duck tour boats broke, and the duck swerved into oncoming traffic and into the side of a bus carrying North Seattle College students. Five died, and scores of others were injured, many seriously.
"As tough as it's been for me and the people who work for me, it pales in comparison to what the people in this incident, that terrible, terrible, horrible accident have gone through,” Tracey said. “I get that, big time."
The accident shut down the company for months. An investigation by the Washington Utilities and Transportation commission found 442 violations. Some violations were mechanical, others were serious accounting and paperwork errors, such as failing to carry out some random drug and alcohol tests.
The result was more than $300,000 in penalties. An inspection in July found just three small paperwork errors according to the WUTC, and nothing mechanical. If the company can keep passing inspections into 2018, half the penalties will be waived.
"We don't mind the scrutiny," said Tracey. "As far as I'm concerned, they could come in every other week. What it does for us, is it makes us be at the top of our game, because this is the thing that's most important to me, is the safety of these vehicles."
Tracey won't go into the cause of the accident. It is up to the National Transportation Safety Board to determine why the axle broke. An NTSB spokesman said this week he expects the investigation to wrap up soon.
Half of the duck fleet is out of service. The out-of-service vehicles are called "stretch ducks," and identical to the vehicle involved in the accident. Tracey said he doesn't know if those vehicles will ever go back on the road. They sit in the company's Ballard neighborhood shop, parked close together, and stripped of their license plates.
The company is moving forward with its fleet of "truck ducks" with a different, newer frame and drive train. Some are just a few years old.
Ducks no longer travel over the Aurora Bridge. An agreement with the City of Seattle now requires two employees aboard the ducks, one to focus solely on driving, the other to conduct the tour. The driver or "captain" used to do both
An array of lawsuits against the company and other defendants, including the city and the state, have yet to be settled. Tracey said his company is pushing for what he calls a "global mediation."
"It means you get all the people involved together, and you come up with a solution that is equitable and fair to everybody involved in this incident," said Tracey. "It makes the whole process go a lot faster and also makes sure that nobody gets left out of the equation."
Attorney Karen Koehler, who represents over a dozen plaintiffs in the case, called global mediation "a public relations ploy" in a phone interview with KING 5.
