A lawsuit filed by the family of a University of Cincinnati soccer player who died in 2021 alleges that she was “poisoned by carbon monoxide” on a boat and that the boat’s design was defective and didn’t have adequate warnings about carbon monoxide dangers.
The case is expected to proceed to trial next year after the 1st District Court of Appeals on Nov. 7 reversed a Hamilton County judge’s decision to throw out the case.
The court, in a 3-0 decision, said there were genuine issues of material fact that a jury should decide, including whether the boat’s design led to Ally Sidloski’s death.
Sidloski, a 21-year-old junior from Strongsville, Ohio, had gone with a group of friends to a lake in Clermont County’s East Fork State Park on May 22, 2021.
Sidloski spent about half an hour on seats at the back of the Yamaha 212X boat, according to witnesses. At one point, one of her friends was wakeboarding and fell off the board. The boat went back to pick her up. As the boat stopped, Sidloski got into the water, and after about 30 seconds to a minute, she disappeared.
Approximately eight hours later, Sidloski’s body was found near the bottom of the lake. It was determined that carbon monoxide poisoning contributed to her drowning.
The appeals court’s decision notes that Yamaha referred to the area where Sidloski was sitting as the “upper swim platform” and asserted that passengers were only supposed to sit there when the engine was off. Attorneys for her family called the area “rear-facing seats.”
Court documents say Yamaha “outfitted” that part of the boat with cushions, cupholders and radio controls – which Sidloski’s family’s attorneys called “anti-warnings” that would lead passengers to believe the area was generally safe.
Also according to the documents, Yamaha didn’t post easily visible warnings explicitly telling passengers not to sit in that part of the boat while the engine was running. Yamaha said its warning labels complied with industry standards.
Yamaha attributed Sidlokski’s death solely to being exposed to carbon monoxide while she was in the water because no other passenger on the boat reported any symptoms. But an expert for Sidloski’s family said it would have been impossible for her to have been poisoned to the degree she was after only 30 seconds to a minute.
The appeals court said Sidloski’s family had “demonstrated that elevated levels of carbon monoxide surrounded” the area where she had been sitting and that she lost consciousness almost immediately after getting into the water.
An attorney who handled the appeal, Paul Kerridge, said in a statement that the court’s decision paves the way for Sidloski’s family “to secure justice at a jury trial.”
“We also expect that the impact of this case will reverberate beyond justice for the Sidloski family, and will help create a legacy for Ally,” the statement said. “The Court of Appeals’ decision sets the precedent in Ohio that companies must make a conscious and deliberate effort to ensure the safety of their products.”
The case is in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. A trial date has not been set.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Jury to decide if boat design led to University of Cincinnati student’s death
Reporting by Kevin Grasha, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
