$123 Million Verdict for Aurora Bridge Duck Boat Crash, Largest Non-Punitive PI Verdict in Washington
After trial: The award covered roughly 40 plaintiffs, with individual shares ranging from about $40,000 to $25 million.
A King County jury awarded $123 million to 40 plaintiffs after five international students were killed and dozens injured when a Ride the Ducks amphibious vehicle suffered a catastrophic axle fracture on Seattle's Aurora Bridge in 2015.
What happened
On September 24, 2015, a Ride the Ducks amphibious tour vehicle was traveling northbound across the Aurora Bridge in Seattle when its front axle fractured without warning. The vehicle crossed the centerline and speared into a charter bus carrying international students and staff from North Seattle College who were traveling in the opposite direction. Five students died. Approximately 69 others were injured, many of them severely.
The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that Ride the Ducks International, the Missouri-based manufacturer, had improperly repaired the axle and had issued a 2013 service bulletin warning about the defect. Ride the Ducks of Seattle, the local operator, had failed to adequately address that warning. The city of Seattle and the state of Washington were also named as defendants.
Karen Koehler of Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore led the plaintiffs' trial team, with Andrew Ackley as second chair. The case consolidated claims for 40 injured and bereaved plaintiffs and went to trial in King County Superior Court. Koehler sought roughly $300 million in total damages based on the severity of injuries and the deaths of five young people who had traveled from South Korea, Austria, Indonesia, China, and Japan to study in Seattle.
After nearly four months of trial proceedings, the jury returned its verdict on February 7, 2019. It assigned 70 percent of fault to Ride the Ducks International and 30 percent to Ride the Ducks of Seattle. The city and state were found not liable. The jury awarded $123 million across the 40 plaintiffs, with individual awards ranging from $40,000 to $25.3 million. Survivor Phuong Dinh, who required hip replacement and multiple surgeries, received $25.3 million. The verdict was reported as the largest non-punitive personal injury trial verdict in Washington state history.
Ride the Ducks International and Ride the Ducks of Seattle filed a notice of appeal, but in April 2019 the companies and their insurers withdrew the appeal and settled remaining claims. The $123 million verdict stood.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Claims Journal: Jury Awards Seattle Duck Boat Crash Victims $123M (Feb. 11, 2019)·Archived copy
- 2.Insurance Journal: Jury Awards $123M to Victims in Washington Duck Boat Crash (Feb. 11, 2019)·Archived copy
- 3.KIRO 7 News Seattle: Jury reaches verdict in Ride the Ducks civil trial (Feb. 2019)·Archived copy
- 4.KMTR/NBC: Jury finds Ride the Ducks Seattle negligent in deadly Aurora Bridge crash (2019)·Archived copy
More proven verdicts from Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore
All Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore proven verdicts →A Pierce County jury awarded $44.7 million to an EMT and volunteer firefighter left with permanent injuries after an SUV driver turned left through an uncontrolled intersection and into his path, a verdict Washington courts later upheld in full.
Washington state paid $28 million to a young woman left quadriplegic after her car struck an unguarded overpass pillar on I-5 near DuPont, where WSDOT had funding and a plan to install a protective barrier but never completed the work.
King County paid its largest personal injury settlement on record after a 38-year-old mother of two was mauled by two dogs the county had repeatedly been warned about but failed to remove.
Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore secured a $10 million settlement from the City of Seattle on behalf of more than 50 protesters who were struck by blast balls, tear gas, and other crowd-control weapons deployed by Seattle Police Department officers during the May and June 2020 George Floyd demonstrations.
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