Three employees of a Missouri tour boat company were charged with felony criminal charges over a 2018 accident that killed 17 people on a lake, prosecutors said on Friday, bringing new charges in one of the deadliest accidents involving a tour boat in U.S. history. The three employees, Kenneth Scott McKee, Charles Baltzell and Curtis Lanham, were charged with a total of 63 counts in relation to the sinking of the duck boat, Missouri’s attorney general, Eric Schmitt, and a Stone County prosecutor, Matt Selby, said in a statement on Friday. Mr. McKee, 54, was the captain, Mr. Lanham, 38, was the general manager and Mr. Baltzell, 79, was the manager on duty on the duck boat, a vessel modeled after the amphibious trucks used in World War II to move on land and water. They were each charged with 17 counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, and Mr. McKee also faces several charges of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Source: New York Times July 16, 2021 18:43 UTC