Duck boat, bus crash; 4 die

SEATTLE - A "duck boat" tour vehicle and a charter bus carrying foreign college students collided on a busy Seattle bridge Thursday, killing four people and sending dozens to hospitals.

The collision happened on the Aurora Avenue bridge, which carries one of the city's main north-south highways over a lake.

At least 12 people were in critical condition, and many others suffered minor injuries, Fire Chief Harold Scoggins said.

There was no immediate word about the cause of the crash, which involved a military-style tour bus that can also be operated on water. Initial reports described the accident as a head-on collision.

A driver who was behind the duck boat said the bus and duck boat were headed in opposite directions. Brad Volm, 23, of Philadelphia, said the amphibious vehicle swerved in front of him. The left front tire of the duck boat appeared to lock up, and then the vehicle swerved into the oncoming charter bus, Volm said.

Witnesses described hearing a loud screech and then seeing injured people lying on the pavement or wandering around in a daze.

Jahna Dyer, a registered nurse, said she was walking across the bridge when she came upon the scene.

She jumped a railing separating the sidewalk from the roadway and helped stabilize an injured man's neck. She said she also helped a woman who had a cut lip and glass in her eye.

The amphibious vehicle is operated by a tour company called Ride the Ducks, which offers tours that are known for exuberant drivers and guides who play loud music and quack through speakers as they lead tourists around the city.

In 2010, a barge plowed into a Ride the Ducks amphibious vessel packed with tourists that had stalled in the Delaware River in Philadelphia, killing two young Hungarian visitors.

In July, the family of a woman struck and killed by a Ride the Ducks vehicle at 11th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia in May filed a wrongful-death lawsuit.