The daughter of one of the three crewmen who drowned in a tugboat crash on the Hudson River near the new Tappan Zee Bridge construction site is returning to work as a tugboat captain as she honors her father's legacy.
"They say I'm the spitting image of my father," Ericka Amon told NBC 4 New York in an exclusive interview Thursday, weeks after her father, Paul Amon of Bayville, New Jersey, died March 12.
"He grew up sailing, my mom grew up sailing," she said. "They met on the water. Our whole lives, everything was about the water."
But in Ericka's case, "my father followed in my footsteps," she said. While Paul introduced her to boating, Ericka took the lead in becoming a tugboat captain.
"I never thought that I wouldn't be able to talk to my father again, especially about work and tugs and the job," she said. "Never in a million years thought I wouldn't be able to talk to him."
Amon, who was 63, and two other crew members drowned when their 90-foot tugboat, known as the Specialist, crashed into a construction barge near where the new Tappan Zee Bridge is being built. Authorities said three tugboats were pushing a barge from Albany to Jersey City when the Specialist - situated on the right side as it headed south - hit the stationary construction barge.
The other two crewmen were identified as 29-year-old Timothy Conklin of Westbury and 56-year-old Harry Hernandez of Staten Island.
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After taking time off work after her father's death, Ericka is back at work. But she still wants answers. There were other boats involved in moving the barge, and Ericka wonders whether the configuration of boats could have been improved, and if the boats were even the right ones for the mission. She also thinks the project could have been completed at a different time to avoid a high tide.
"I truly believe there were ways to prevent that from happening," she said.
But back on the water Thursday, Ericka, like her father, feels at home.
"I'm very proud of him. It's horrible that he's not here. But I'm proud of him," she said.
