BOSTON — A 29-year-old woman was killed and her passenger was injured after the scooter she was driving was struck by an amphibious sightseeing vehicle, known as a duck boat, Saturday in downtown Boston.
The crash happened at about 11:30 a.m. near Boston Common. The woman and her male passenger were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where the woman died from her injuries, according to Boston police Officer Rachel McGuire. The passenger did not have life-threatening injuries, McGuire added.
There were about 30 passengers on the Boston Duck Tours vehicle when the crash happened, McGuire said. There were no other injuries.
Started in 1994, Boston Duck Tours float on the Charles River and stop at historical spots such as Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall and Trinity Church.
Bob Schwartz, a Boston Duck Tours spokesman, said in an email that the company is trying to obtain video footage to see what happened.
This is not the first fatal crash involving duck boats.
In Seattle last year, a duck boat crashed into a charter bus, killing five passengers on the bus. Two Hungarian tourists were killed in 2010 when a duck boat was hit by a barge on the Delaware River near Philadelphia.
Duck boats were first used by the U.S. Army during World War II when it deployed thousands of amphibious landing craft that were known then by their military designation, DUKW.