Hit the brakes on Ride the Ducks tours, Don O’Neill says

While Seattle’s Ride the Ducks has a plan for if and when its amphibious vehicles roll back out on to the roads, KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don aren’t satisfied with the company &#8212 just yet.

“I will be here on the radio encouraging people not to go on the Ducks as much as I’ve encouraged people to go on the Ducks [in the past], until we find out exactly what happened, and why those people died…” said Don O’Neill.

“And I was a big Ducks supporter. I’ve gone on the Duck. I’ve sent my family on the Duck. I’ve encouraged Ron’s family to go on the Ducks,” he added.

On Sept. 24, a Ride the Ducks vehicle was traveling across Seattle’s Aurora Bridge when it suddenly veered and collided with a charter bus carrying foreign students at North Seattle College. Five people died and more than 50 were sent to the hospital.

Related: Ride the Ducks vehicle collides with tour bus, kills five, injures more than 50

State and federal investigations into the incident are underway. Of particular interest to some is that a memo was sent out to Ride the Ducks franchises across the country warning of a possible issue with the front axle of the vehicles. That service bulletin was sent in 2013.

“We saw that there was a fix that was supposed to be done to these amphibious vehicles, and it warned that if you didn’t do this fix on some of the front axles, the wheel could just pop off. It kind of looks like that’s what happened here,” Don said.

Ride the Ducks Seattle has said that three mechanics had inspected all the vehicles at regularly scheduled times prior to the fatal collision. President of the Seattle tour company, Brian Tracey, has said that his company is cooperating with federal and state inspectors.

“We will not return any of the fleet to service until we can demonstrate that our fleet is well maintained, road worthy and safe through an independent inspection of every Duck vehicle we operate,” he previously said.

This week, Ride the Ducks announced that it had revised its policies in anticipation of re-opening the tour businesses once investigations are completed.

“Brian Tracey has decided, with his people, that they will no longer ride on the Aurora Bridge. They are going to take out a map and redo their route,” co-host Ron Upshaw said. “When I was on the Duck, that was the fastest that you were driving; when you were going across that bridge. The rest of the time we were on surface streets.”

“The second thing they are going to do is they are going to have two employees on the Duck,” he said. “So you are going to have a dedicated driver who is not also going to be the entertainer. When this crash happened, the driver was the entertainer, was the music conductor, switching out the CDs, and moving hats, and talking into the microphone. So no Aurora Bridge, and one guy driving and one guy guiding.”

That’s not enough for Don. Despite being a fan of the tour in the past, he says it’s not time to put the Ducks back on the road. He argues that before they are, the investigations need to be complete and answers need to be found.

“What good is it going to do to have another entertainer on a Duck of the wheel is going to fall off again? If that is what happened,” Don said.

“I hear a guy that is trying to save his business. You’re out there trying to save your business and you’re trying to get the Ducks back on the road, but five people died on that bridge. If that bus wasn’t there, that Duck would have gone off the bridge,” he said. “I’m not hearing an owner operator that cares. If you care about this community, and you care about those kids &#8212 those people on the bus and the people on the duck &#8212 put the brakes on.”

Instead, Don maintains that Ride the Ducks should stay off the roads and out of Seattle waterways. In the meantime, the focus should be on the people affected by the tragedy.

“I think what you should do is say, “We’re going to shut this thing down and see what happens with this investigation, see how many people sue us, we’re gonna see if we can still get insurance because there is going to be a lot of law suits, and we’re going to make sure as best as we can as a company, make these families whole,'” Don said. “There were 51 people that went to the hospital, five people died, 13 people were in critical condition and you’re trying to get your Ducks back on the road.”

And despite the attraction being so popular in the past, perhaps it’s just not meant to be.

“If your company doesn’t come back, it doesn’t come back,” Don said. “It didn’t come back in San Francisco, maybe it’s not going to come back here.”