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Ride the Ducks sued after woman's car crushed

By Amy Clancy
By Amy Clancy

SEATTLE — Jane McConnell, of Seattle, was driving northbound on Westlake Avenue North when her black Kia sedan was suddenly struck by another vehicle.

“The window of my passenger side was exploding with glass,” she told KIRO 7 on Thursday. “The front windshield was exploding with glass.”

McConnell said she had to escape through the passenger door, and it was only when bystanders helped her to the side of the street that she realized she’d been hit by a Ride the Ducks vehicle.

She said the impact on that day in March 2017 felt as if the 34,000-pound Duck “was going to go up and over my car and I would be crushed. I really thought I was in my coffin,” McConnell remembered.

According to the Seattle police report, as the Duck vehicle changed into the right lane, the driver “felt a hard impact from striking” McConnell’s vehicle.  The driver was issued a citation for an "unsafe lane change."

However, KIRO 7 has learned the same driver was charged with driving under the influence and possession of marijuana in Chelan County after driving off State Route 2 at Hay Canyon Road in 2007.

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According to the Washington State Patrol Case Report, when he was asked if he would submit to a blood draw, the driver said “no.”

The Duck driver’s history concerns Todd Williams, of Corr Cronin LLP in Seattle, the lawyer McConnell has hired to sue Ride the Ducks Seattle.

“That raises some serious questions about what Ride the Ducks knew before they hired this driver and whether he should have been driving in the first place,” Williams said.

A spokesperson for Ride the Ducks Seattle wouldn’t answer KIRO 7's question about whether the driver still works for the company.

Instead, a spokesperson issued the following statement:

“Ride the Ducks Seattle goes above and beyond what is required by the state and federal agencies in how we hire, train and test our drivers. In this case our driver also passed the U.S. Coast Guard’s extensive background check. Immediately after the accident, our driver voluntarily underwent an alcohol and drug screen, which he passed.”

Williams isn’t convinced that safety is a priority for Ride the Ducks.

“We all know the Aurora Bridge tragedy happened in 2015, and not many months after that, we have this accident. You would think that, at the very least, Ride the Ducks would have implemented some serious safety improvements to prevent accidents like this from ever happening.”

McConnell believes Ride the Ducks vehicles are just too big for Seattle's crowded streets and asked “How could something like this still be on the streets?”

McConnell is suing for personal injuries, damages and punitive relief “to be proven at the time of trial,” according to the complaint.  She said she is still traumatized, not only because of her injuries, but because her husband of nearly 50 years – Dan McConnell – died less than a month after her accident.

“I wasn’t able to care for him because of it, and I feel guilty about that.  I was not physically able to take care of him.”

Cox Media Group

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