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Woman heading to wedding is passenger in crash involving duck boat

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 13, 2010 04:28 PM

John Tlumacki / Globe Staff

The scene on Court Street in downtown Boston this afternoon

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Three vehicles, including a duck boat, were involved in a traffic incident this afternoon in downtown Boston.

No one was injured when a Honda sedan with three women on board drove into the path of the duck boat "Old Gloria'' as the vehicles were traveling down Court Street, near Government Center.

According to a Boston police report, one of the three women – not the driver – rushed away from the scene.

"One of the women left the area due to their wedding ceremony,'' police said.

Police would not identify the bride, nor the driver, who was cited for an unsafe lane change, a civil infraction.

The driver told police she was driving in the middle lane on Court Street when she tried to get into the lefthand lane. She collided with the duck boat, which sent the much smaller Honda bouncing back into a truck, police said.

The Honda, which had markings to suggest it was a Zipcar rental vehicle, was heavily damaged and had to be towed from the scene.

Cindy Brown, general manager for the Boston Duck Tours company, said passengers reported that the driver of the passenger car cut off the duck boat while it was on Court Street.

"They filled out comment cards,'' she said of the passengers on board the duck boat at the time. "They said it was not our fault.''

Brown said the duck boat, which holds a maximum of 32 passengers, was "relatively full'' at the time of the crash.

Boston police checked out the duck boat and allowed it to leave the scene of the crash, she said. Passengers remained on the vehicle, and the tour continued.

However, she added, before the duck boat took a dip into the Charles River, the company transferred the passengers to a spare duck boat.

Brown said the amphibious vehicles are involved in the "occasional fender-bender.''