The tug mate involved in the deadly duck boat crash a year ago was criminally charged in connection with the incident on Thursday and will plead guilty, federal prosecutors said.
Matthew R. Devlin, 35, of Catskill, N.Y., was piloting the M/V Caribbean Sea on July 7, 2010, as it towed a 250-foot barge on the Delaware River and crushed a stalled Ride the Ducks vessel with 35 passengers, killing Hungarian students Szabolcs Prem, 20, and Dora Schwendtner, 16.
Devlin is charged with misconduct of a ship operator causing death. He has signed a plea agreement that will force him to permanently give up his Coast Guard-issued maritime license. In exchange for his guilty plea, the government will only seek a three-year prison sentence instead of the 10-year maximum.
The investigation revealed that Devlin, who was attending to medical complications with his 5-year-old son, violated numerous company policies — including using his personal cell phone while on watch — that prevented him from seeing the duck boat or hearing radio calls before the crash.
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