Victims' parents visit scene of fatal duck boat ride

The parents of the two Hungarian students killed last month when a barge collided with a duck boat on the Delaware River visited the crash site Tuesday.

"We had to see where they died," Aniko Takacs, mother of Dora Schwendtner, said on Tuesday after the visit to the riverside. She was accompanied by her boyfriend Gabor Csirke, her ex-husband Peter Schwendtner, and Sandor and Sandorne Prem, parents of Szabolcs Prem, the second victim.

As the parents stood at the edge of Penn's Landing, tossing red and white flower wreaths into the river to remember their only children, a duck on a testing cruise coursed through the water close to the crash site.

"It was hard to see," Sandorne Prem, Szabolcs Prem's mother, said later in the Center City offices of their attorney, hardly able to get the words out of her mouth. "Duck boats should be out of business everywhere," noted her husband.

Dora Schwendtner, 16, and Szabolcs Prem, 20, drowned July 7 when they apparently became trapped under the canopy of the amphibious vehhicle as it sank to the bottom of the Delaware River.

Shortly after the duck embarked on what everyone expected would be a cheerful ride on that cloudless afternoon, the engine stalled with 37 tourists and crew aboard. While anchored in the shipping channel awaiting help, a 250-foot barge being pushed upriver by a tugboat rammed the duck, forcing it under the water. All but the two students were rescued.

Five weeks later, the victims' families decided to take the painful trip to Philadelphia, arriving late Monday.

In brief statements in the offices of lawyer Robert J. Mungeluzzi, who filed wrongful-deaths lawsuits against the city and the operators of both vessels on behalf of the families, the grieving mothers, dressed in black and holding hands, described their children as joyful and open-minded young people.

"She was waiting for the trip to America her whole life," said Aniko Takacs. Dora was a "sweet and nice girl," she added, tears running down her face. "We had everything in the world, now we have nothing."

Szabolcs Prem also looked forward to his first visit overseas, and had planned to come back again, said his mother. "He loved learning English and German. He wanted to be an interpreter," she said.

The parents also wanted to thank the citizens of Philadelphia for posting condolences on a memorial Web page and sending cards. "We will not forget this," said Peter Schwendtner.

Bob Salmon, spokesman for Ride the Ducks, apologized on Tuesday for the "unfortunate coincidence" that one of the ducks was cruising on the river during the victims' parents' visit.

"We understand they are upset. We did not know that the families were there. Our ships have been on routine drills for the last four days," he said.

The Atlanta-based company is hoping to get back into operation soon. "We are currently establishing a timetable with the Coast Guard," Salmon said.

The Coast Guard has yet to decide on the company's petition to return its ducks to the water, Salmon said.

The Coast Guard has the authority to decide whether the ducks can return to the water and the city has jurisdiction over whether the ducks can operate on land.

Spokesmen for the city and the Coast Guard declined to comment.

Mongeluzzi, in a letter last week to Mayor Nutter, urged the city to ban the ducks. On Aug. 10, he filed suit, naming Ride the Ducks and tugboat operator K-Sea Transportation Partners. The suit, which seeks punitive damages, says the deaths were senseless and preventable.

"They sink fast, and they have canopies that become death cages," Mongeluzzi said about the ducks. "You need to make the vessels unsinkable."

Salmon, the company spokesman, said "it's pure speculation" that the canopies contributed to the deaths.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident.

"We will probably publish a preliminary report at the end of the month," Keith Holloway, NTSB spokesman, said Tuesday.

For the parents of the two dead teenagers, the legal consequences will not ease their pain. Still, they want to make sure that something like this cannot happen again.

"I don't want my daughter to die for no reason," said Aniko Takacs. "There should never be a duck boat out on a river anywhere in the world."

The families will return to Hungary on Monday.