Families go to court over boat-crash deaths
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Survivors of five people killed when their pontoon boat sank July 4 on the Ohio River have filed complaints blaming the owner of the barge into which they crashed.
Their estates allege that Walsh Construction Co., which is building the Ohio River Bridges Project’s downtown crossing, knew its floating platform used for bridge construction “created a dangerous condition and negligently failed to warn of the same.” The bridge, expected to be completed next year, is one of two bridges being built as part of the project.
The Swinney family's rented pontoon boat with nine people aboard ran into the barge during a July 4 fireworks show and was sucked under it. Three children and an adult were able to make it to safety.
Danal Swinney Sr., 37, who was piloting the boat, was killed, as were Donald Swinney, 52; Mark Swinney Jr., 14; A’Daisha Swinney, 10; and Joyce Wright, 37, Danal Swinney’s girlfriend.
The complaints were filed in U.S. District Court this week in response to a suit that Walsh Construction filed in July under federal admiralty law denying liability. Walsh’s lawyers have said their barge was seaworthy.
The families are asking for unspecified monetary damages, a jury trial and the ability to sue Walsh in state court.
The plaintiffs allege Walsh failed to adequately light the barge, maintain a lookout and follow requirements of a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The complaints say Danal Swinney Sr. was piloting the boat in the river’s navigational channel when law enforcement officers ordered him toward the Indiana shore to make way for the Belle of Louisville.
Clair Nichols, a spokesman for Walsh, referred question to its legal department, which was closed Wednesday afternoon.
About two years earlier on the Hudson River in New York, a drunk driver rammed his boat into a Tappan Zee Bridge construction barge, killing a bride-to-be and her fiance's best man and injuring at least four others. Since then, additional lights were added to the barges and a 2-mile safety zone was approved that restricts recreational boaters from the area.
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