'If They Don't Make It, Lord, Take
Me Too': Duck Boat Accident Survivor
Recounts Incident That Killed 9
Family Members. Duck boat accident
survivor Tia Coleman speaks to the
media during a news conference at
Cox Medical Center Branson Saturday,
July 21, 2018 in Branson, Mo.
Coleman lost 9 family members in the
accident Thursday on Table Rock Lake
which left over a dozen dead.
Duck
boat
accident
survivor
Tia
Coleman
is
comforted
by her
sister
Leeta
Bigbee
after
speaking
to the
media at
Cox
Medical
Center
Branson
Saturday,
July 21,
2018 in
Branson,
Mo.
Coleman
lost
nine
family
members
in the
accident
Thursday
on Table
Rock
Lake
which
left
over a
dozen
people
dead.
(Photo:
Charlie
Riedel,
AP)
Survivor
recounts
boat
accident
that
killed 9
family
members By
MARGARET
STAFFORD
APNews.com
BRANSON,
Mo. -
“Grab
the
baby!”
Those
were the
last
words
Tia
Coleman
recalls
her
sister-in-law
yelling
before
the
tourist
boat
they
were on
sank
into a
Missouri
lake,
killing
17
people,
including
nine of
Coleman’s
family
members.
A
huge
wave
hit,
scattering
passengers
on the
vessel
known as
a duck
boat
into
Table
Rock
Lake
near
Branson,
Coleman
said.
When the
Indianapolis
woman
came up
for air,
she was
alone.
She
prayed.
“I
said,
‘Lord,
please,
let me
get to
my
babies,”
she told
reporters
from her
wheelchair
Saturday
in the
lobby of
a
hospital
where
she’s
recovering
after
swallowing
lake
water.
“‘... If
they
don’t
make it,
Lord,
take me
too. I
don’t
need to
be
here.’”
Coleman
recalled
spotting
the
rescue
boat and
managed
to reach
it,
“somehow.”
Earlier,
from her
hospital
bed, she
recounted
to
television
station
KOLR her
sister-in-law’s
last
words.
Coleman’s
husband
and
three
children,
ages 9,
7 and 1;
her
45-year-old
sister-in-law
and
2-year-old
nephew;
her
mother-in-law
and
father-in-law
and her
husband’s
uncle
all died
Thursday
night in
the
deadliest
accident
of its
kind in
nearly
two
decades.
Divers
found
four
more
bodies
Friday
in a
Missouri
lake
where a
duck
boat
packed
with
tourists
capsized
and sank
in high
winds,
bringing
the
death
toll to
17 in
the
country-and-western
town of
Branson,
authorities
said.
(July
20)
Others
killed
included
a
Missouri
couple
who had
just
celebrated
a
birthday;
another
Missouri
couple
on what
was
planned
as their
last
extended
vacation;
an
Illinois
woman
who died
while
saving
her
granddaughter’s
life; an
Arkansas
father
and son;
and a
retired
pastor
who was
the
boat’s
operator.
None
of the
31
passengers
on board
was
wearing
a life
jacket,
according
to an
incident
report
released
Saturday
by the
Missouri
State
Highway
Patrol.
State
and
federal
investigators
were
trying
to
determine
what
sent the
vessel,
originally
built
for
military
use in
World
War II,
to its
demise.
An
initial
assessment
blamed
thunderstorms
and
winds
that
approached
hurricane
strength,
but it
wasn’t
clear
why the
amphibious
vehicle
even
ventured
into the
water.
Coleman
said the
crew
told
passengers
they
were
going
into the
water
first,
before
the
land-based
part of
their
tour,
because
of the
incoming
storm.
The area
had been
under a
severe
thunderstorm
watch
for
hours
and a
severe
thunderstorm
warning
for more
than 30
minutes
before
the boat
sank.
Suzanne
Smagala
with
Ripley
Entertainment,
which
owns
Ride the
Ducks in
Branson,
said it
was the
company’s
only
accident
in more
than 40
years of
operation.
The
company
hasn’t
commented
on
Coleman’s
account
of the
tour,
which
usually
begins
with a
tour of
downtown
Branson,
known
for its
country
shows
and
entertainment,
before
the
vessel
enters
the lake
for a
short
ride on
the
water.
Company
President
Jim
Pattison
Jr. said
the boat
captain
had 16
years of
experience,
and the
business
monitors
weather.
Twenty-nine
passengers
and two
crew
members
were
aboard.
Fourteen
people
survived,
including
two
adults
who
remained
hospitalized
Saturday.
Coleman
and her
13-year-old
nephew
were the
only of
the 11
members
of her
family
who
boarded
the boat
to make
it out
alive.
Another
survivor
was
12-year-old
Alicia
Dennison,
of
Illinois,
who says
her
grandmother,
64-year-old
Leslie
Dennison,
saved
her from
drowning.
Alicia’s
father,
Todd
Dennison,
told the
Kansas
City
Star
that his
daughter
recalled
feeling
her
grandmother
below
her,
pushing
her
upward
after
the boat
capsized.
Another
young
survivor
was
14-year-old
Loren
Smith of
Osceola,
Arkansas.
She
suffered
a
concussion,
but her
father,
53-year-old
retired
math
teacher
Steve
Smith,
and her
15-year-old
brother,
Lance,
died.
Others
killed
included
65-year-old
William
Bright
and his
63-year-old
wife,
Janice.
The
couple
had
recently
celebrated
their
45th
wedding
anniversary
and had
talked
about
Branson
being
one of
their
last big
trips,
recalled
neighbor
Barbara
Beck.
The
couple
moved to
Higginsville
from
Kansas
City,
Missouri,
three
years
earlier
to be
closer
to a
daughter
and
grandchildren
and
quickly
embraced
small-town
life.
William
Bright’s
final
public
Facebook
posting
noted
the
wedding
anniversary
and how
happy he
was with
his
wife,
three
kids and
16
grandchildren.
Life, he
wrote,
had
“been a
lot of
fun.”
Another
Missouri
couple
killed
in the
accident
were
69-year-old
William
Asher
and
68-year-old
Rosemarie
Hamann.
The St.
Louis-area
couple
had been
celebrating
Hamman’s
birthday
earlier
in the
week. In
a final
Facebook
photo
posted
by
Hamann,
he’s
sticking
his
tongue
out and
she’s
smiling.
“I
can only
imagine
what
they
were
going
through.
They
were so
in love.
It’s
just
heartbreaking,”
said
friend
Russ
McKay,
who said
talked
to
Hamann
the day
before
the
accident.
McCay
says
Hamann
told him
the
couple
had just
gone on
a paddle
boat and
were
planning
to go
again.
He
doesn’t
know why
they
chose
the duck
boat
instead.
Chance
also
brought
the
Colemans
aboard
the
doomed
vessel.
Tia
Coleman
said her
family
initially
lined up
for the
wrong
tour so
they had
to
switch
out
their
tickets
for the
6:30
p.m.
ride.
She
says the
crew
showed
passengers
where
the life
jackets
were but
said
they
wouldn’t
need
them.
The
company’s
website
had been
taken
down by
Saturday,
save for
a
statement
that its
operations
would
remain
shuttered
to
support
the
investigation
and
allow
time for
families
and the
community
to
grieve.
Investigators
with the
National
Transportation
Safety
Board
and U.S.
Coast
Guard
were
hoping a
video
recorder
recovered
from the
boat
would
help
provide
some
explanation
on why
it sank.
NTSB
member
Earl
Weener
winds
were 2
mph
short of
hurricane
force at
the
time.
While
the
boat’s
driver
on
water,
51-year-old
Kenneth
McKee,
survived;
its
driver
on land,
73-year-old
Bob
Williams,
did not.
Branson
Mayor
Karen
Best
said
Williams
was a
“great
ambassador”
for the
city.
Williams’
family
in Rhode
Island,
where
he’d
lived
for
decades
before
retiring
to
Branson,
remembered
him as a
deeply
religious
man who
founded
a local
church.
“Pastor
Bob was
a prince
of a
man,
loving,
kind,
and
generous,
whose
loss to
our
family
is
incalculable,”
said
Williams’
son-in-law,
Bishop
Jeffery
Williams,
who now
leads
King’s
Cathedral
in
Providence.