SEATTLE, Wash. — Ride the Ducks of Seattle has agreed to pay a $110,000 penalty for safety violations found after the September 2015 crash on the Aurora Bridge that left five people dead and dozens more people hurt.
UTC transportation staff opened the investigation into Ride the Ducks after the Sept. 24 crash that killed five people. See photos here.
On Thursday, staff regulators with the Utilities and Transportation Commission filed an agreement with the company, in which Ride the Ducks admitted violating 463 motor carrier safety rules, 159 of which are classified as acute or critical to protecting public safety.
The remaining 304 violations were related to recordkeeping.
While the total proposed penalty is $222,000, UTC staff recommend waiving the fines for the record keeping violations, reducing the fine to $110,400.
In a statement, Patricia Buchanan, the attorney representing Ride the Ducks of Seattle, wrote: "We are pleased that we were able to reach this settlement agreement with the UTC. The settlement is fair, and appropriately places the emphasis on ensuring that Ride the Ducks vehicles are the safest commercial vehicles on the road."
Attorney Charles Herrmann represents the family of Privando Eduardus Putradanto, 18, of Indonesia, who died.
"It doesn't do our clients much good," Herrmann said of the UTC settlement. "The fact that they found a lot of safety violations, however, if they're corrected, may very well save somebody in the future."
The proposed reduced penalty is contingent on the company not violating any testing requirements for two years.
[ Related: See inside first Ride The Ducks tour since crash ]
The agreement now goes before the three-member commission, who will either approve, modify, or reject the agreement.
UTC released the following developments in a news release on Thursday:
The company must undergo follow-up compliance investigations and vehicle inspections this summer, and again in January 2017 and January 2018, to determine if the company is following its safety management plan and to verify compliance with state and federal safety requirements..
The commission has prohibited RTDS from using its "Stretch-Duck" vehicles until the company has demonstrated, and the commission has determined, that those vehicles pose no immediate danger to public safety.
The UTC regulates the rates and services of charter-bus companies, household goods movers, telecommunications companies, investor-owned electric utilities, natural gas and water companies, garbage-collection haulers, commercial ferries, pipeline companies, and a low-level radioactive waste repository.<br/>