An Ohio appeals court has reignited a lawsuit against Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. over the death of 21-year-old college athlete Allyson Sidloski, ruling that key questions about the boat’s design and carbon monoxide warnings must be decided by a jury rather than dismissed outright.
The decision, issued Friday by a three-judge panel of the Ohio Court of Appeals, First District, overturns a previous summary judgment in favor of Yamaha. The court found that factual disputes remain about whether Yamaha’s 2018 212X jet boat was defectively designed and whether it failed to properly warn passengers of the dangers of carbon monoxide exposure.
A Boating Trip Turns Fatal
In May 2021, Sidloski, a junior soccer player at the University of Cincinnati, joined friends on a Yamaha 212X jet boat operated by John Fischer. While sitting for about half an hour on the boat’s “upper swim platform”, she complained of smelling exhaust before entering the water and vanishing beneath the lake’s surface.
Her body was recovered hours later. The coroner ruled her death a drowning, with carbon monoxide intoxication listed as a contributing factor.
