Tug-boat mate in Ducks tragedy on cell phone

The tug-boat mate in last summer's deadly duck-boat accident was talking to family members on his cell phone about his son's life-threatening emergency moments before the July 7 crash, according to an investigative report released Monday.

The report from the National Transportation Safety Board said Matt Devlin, first mate on the tug Caribbean Sea, made or received 21 cell-phone calls during the 2.5 hours leading up to the accident.

One of those calls began five minutes before the tug pushed a barge into the duck boat and continued until one minute after the accident, the NTSB report says.

Devlin could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, Frank DeSimone, said he had not yet read the report and had no comment.

Robert Mongeluzzi, a lawyer suing on behalf of the two Hungarian tourists who died in the accident, Dora Schwendtner, 16, and Szabolcs Prem, 20, said the NTSB report pointed to a clear problem.

"Cell phones kill," Mongeluzzi said.

Devlin was so preoccupied that he didn't even realize at first that he had run over a boat, the report said. He also had falsely filled out the log to say the tug had docked safely, the NTSB said.

The NTSB report is preliminary and does not reach any conclusions about the cause of the crash. A final report is expected this summer.

Monday's 3,300-page NTSB report includes transcripts of interviews with passengers and others on the duck and the tug, photos, and other documents obtained during the investigation which began eight months ago.

The NTSB report comes just weeks before Ride the Ducks, the company that operates the tour boats, plans to restore the Delaware River trips it had halted after the accident. Company President Chris Hirschend Monday said he plans to have the vehicles back on the water by the end of March.

The NTSB briefing also raises questions about Ride the Ducks operations.

Several Hungarian passengers told the NTSB that the Ducks captain should have physically demonstrated how to put on life jackets, rather than just explaining it, because they were not native English speakers.

Salmon said the company had since modified its procedures to include physical demonstrations.

The NTSB report also said a deckhand on the duck boat texted his girlfriend moments before the acccident.

"I'm up there and I remember texting my girlfriend," Kyle Burkhardt told the board. But he said he did so as he kept a lookout, and Ride the Ducks spokesman Bob Salmon said, "I don't think you can compare the two," referring to Devlin on the tug.

Burkhardt was not in charge of the Duck boat. That job belonged to captain Gary Fox, Salmon noted.

Devlin was in charge of the tug boat and made multiple calls while failing to keep a lookout, Salmon said.

The report also said that Fox, the duck captain, had failed to notify the Coast Guard after his vessel's engine emitted smoke, causing him to drop anchor. Salmon said the captain's immediate priorities were sending out emergency radio calls and taking care of passengers.

Fox's lawyer, Robert Slota, did not return a call seeking comment.

Devlin, identified by name for the first time in the report, talked to the U.S. Coast Guard and Richard Falcinelli, executive vice president of K-Sea Transportation, the day of the accident.

Falcinelli told NTSB investigators that he rememberd Devlin telling him that his son, whom Falcinelli believed was 6-years-old, had almost died.

"He said his son had had a surgery which was supposed to be relatively minor and routine, that became very serious because his son had a bad reaction to the anesthetic and almost died I think is what he said," Falcinelli said. "I don't know whether he said his heart stopped but he said he almost died."

Devlin did not tell any of the other four people on the tug about his emergency, the report said.

After initially talking to investigators, Devlin pleaded the Fifth Amendment, possibly because there is a criminal investigation into the accident, and never talked to the NTSB or anyone else.

The Coast Guard in August approved Ride the Ducks plans to return to the Delaware with a shorter route and added safety precautions, including having another boat on standby.

The city of Philadelphia has no oversight into Ride the Ducks water operations, but the company is hoping to get the city's approval for its return to the Delaware.

Philadelphia Managing Director Richard Negrin on Monday said he was reading the NTSB report and hoped to incorporate some of it in discussions about safety between the company and the city. He is expecting the company to deliver a new operations plan for the city to review in the next few weeks.

"I think what we're looking to do is try to minimize any potential for accidents to happen," Negrin said.

If the city does not agree with the company's proposal, it could decided not to grant Ride the Ducks necessary businesse licenses, Negrin said.

Drug and alcohol tests on the crews of both vessels were negative, the NTSB said.