Ethan Allen

Chaotic. It's the only way to describe the events of October 2, 2005, when 47 senior citizens crammed aboard a tiny tour boat suddenly found themselves overturned on an otherwise tranquil aut 20 of these passengers tragically lost their lives and 9 more were injured after the tour boat Ethan Allen sank due to negligence. In the aftermath, both civil lawsuits and criminal charges were brought and in a dramatic twist it was revealed that shoreline cruises, the owners of the Ethan Allen, was carrying a fraudulent insurance policy w The rabbit hole goes deep on t As always my videos don't have any sponsors, the only t com and contact my team and I. The attorneytom and associates are goals to protect the people from the powerful by becoming the best law firm in the country. To do that it's important to learn from the influential cases of the past. I've partnered with Sam from Brickham Order to bring attention to the legal aftermath of those maritime events covered on Shedding light on Because your justice matters. By the time those 47 seniors boarded the Ethan Allen to see the fall colors on the tranquil Lake George, the vessel had seen multiple major conversions throughout its life. The most recent being a t I say unknown because there were no inspections carried out to recertify it and establish passenger capacity after each modification. In fact shoreline cruises owned three of these smaller tour boats at the time of what's called dire 40 design. The Ethan Allen, the Desham Plain and the Algonquin. Although originally designed and built in the mid 60s without canopies, their original buyers in Groton Connecticut added a t Double dolp The Seahorse became the Desham Plain and the Sea Lion became the Algonquin. All three of w Also based on the average person's weight in the time period of 140 pounds. The trio would eventually be sold to shoreline cruises of Lake George, New York, renaming them to Ethan Allen, Desham Plain and Algonquin. The move from Groton Connecticut, a whole harbor town on the coast to the inland waters of Lake George, New York meant they'd no longer be subject to US Coast Guard jurisdiction falling solely under the oversight of New York State. Shoreline cruises would add similar metal and canvas canopies to Desham Plain and Algonquin. Throughout their lives, Ethan Allen and Desham Plain were closest in seating and canopy configuration. But for whatever reason, these vessels would continue to go without inspections or stability assessments. Instead, their capacity plate still reading those same original n Shoreline cruises would modify all three yet again in 1989 through 1991, adding the much more robust solid wooden framework canopies to all three with Algonquin getting a slightly smaller version. These modifications performed by Scorano boat builders of Albany, New York. As those 47 seniors boarded that fateful October evening, there was much confusion as they took their seats. The single operator had difficulty performing crowd control duties and it was later discovered through testimony some passengers didn't recall any sort of safety briefing before getting underway. Shoreline providing only the one crew member per tour of t Other guests recounted, the captain tried to give a safety briefing but everyone was talking amongst themselves too loudly for it to be effective, instead noticing the tour got underway regardless. In addition, life jackets weren't readily visible, they were stowed out of sight in two compartments, the majority in a closed storage cubby at the operator station and a handful stowed underneath one of the passenger benches in the bow. On board these tours it's common to hug the shore and take in the sights at a relatively slow relaxing pace and Sunday October 2nd, 2005 was the perfect day for it. The Ethan Allen did have The captain was slowly turning to starboard to go around Kramer Point when a larger vessel passed by to their starboard side, creating a 2-3 foot wake. The timing though between what was a rather abrupt right turn combined with the waves impacting the vessel starboard side created a situation that immediately became unrecoverable. The Ethan Allen had listed to port instantly and severely leaving passengers in the starboard seats unable to keep themselves in place at such angle. They began t Many Samaritan vessels, swimmers and divers arrived immediately as did rescue authorities but the chaotic rollover had happened so quickly for many it was too late. Some survivors described the conditions inside the Ethan Allen after it overturned as chaos under water, total confusion. In the darkness people were stepping on, crawling over one another. One woman said that when she attempted to swim toward the light people were pulling on my legs to crawl up me so they pulled me down. In total 9 were injured the captain amongst the lucky few to survive and 20 souls aboard were lost. It was later determined through witness testimony the vessel passing by creating that strong wake was the riverboat style vessel Mo With the Ethan Allen and NTSB custody investigators were able to rule out mechanical failure, bilge p So actually Desham Plains design, modifications, operation and maintenance had been so similar to Ethan Allen investigators determined they could use it for stability testing and recreate the loading conditions during the capsizing. In testing the NTSB placed 12 empty water barrels along the centerline to simulate the same passenger weights once filled. Initially the test didn't seem out of the ordinary. When they emptied the centered barrels and moved eight barrels enough to simulate passenger weights to the port side they had only filled three when the Desham Plains just about capsized right there at the dock. Catc These results were quite telling. Investigators discovered and determined that despite those capacity ratings from the 60s of 50 occupants total and keep in mind ratings determined prior to even having canopies their actual physical capacity was just 14 occupants and again with no stability testing performed for decades t From the NTSB's findings operator fatigue was not a factor but because drug and alcohol testing of the Ethan Allen operator was not done in a timely manner the toxicological analysis was inconclusive. The addition and subsequent modification of a canopy changed the Ethan Allen'stability characteristics because the double dolphin slash Ethan Allen did not undergo stability assessments after the addition and modification of its canopies it was certificated to carry too many passengers its certificate of inspection permitted 50 persons but stability criteria should have limited the n For the full technical breakdown of the Ethan Allen tragedy and more in-depth maritime case studies check out my links in Tom's description below because your safety matters. First we're going to talk about the civil cases then the criminal case. On the civil side of t Now if you've seen my previous episode on El Faro you might t However t W So now if you're a victim in a situation In the case of Ethan Allen many defendants were including Shoreline Cruises Ethan Allen's owner Richard Parris the captain of the boat Scorano boat building incorporated the boat builders who performed the tour boat haphazard modifications Lake George steamboat company the owners of the vessel Mohegan that created the way contributing to the Ethan Allen capsizing shoreline tours and travel the Canadian travel company responsible for setting the travel agenda not to be confused with shoreline cruises and even claims against the state of New York were brought. These lawsuits were filed quickly just over 30 days later by November 9th 2005 alleging negligence against these defendants in order to prove negligence there are four elements duty breach causation damages. With respect to Shoreline Cruises generally speaking a vessel owner owes a duty to provide both a seaworthy vessel and a safe voyage this duty includes all aspects that a reasonable maritime operator would perform in the same or similar circ s coast guard provide guidance to the states on us coast guard standards for an assessment of stability of small passenger vessels to new york state address the safety deficiencies identified in the investigation of the ethan alan incident and issue technical guidance to vessel owners on inspection requirements for modified vessels stability assessments and criteria means for determining maxim