A St. Louis jury has awarded $11 million to the relatives of Lois and

Randy Anderson who were killed at the Lake of the Ozarks by carbon

 monoxide from their boat's generator.

 

The couple and two friends were killed in 1999, when the corroded

exhaust pipe of the cabin cruiser's generator leaked carbon monoxide

into the cabin, the suit said.

 

The Andersons' children, and the mothers of both Lois and

Randy Anderson, had sued the generator's manufacturer, Kohler Co.,

and Oklahoma marina owner Bratco Inc. Relatives of the other victims,

 John C. Harris and Robert A. Stein, had already settled their lawsuits

before trial, lawyers said.

 

The jury found that the Wisconsin-based Kohler had sold a generator

that was defective and "unreasonably dangerous," and that the defect led

to the death of the Andersons.

 

Investigators found that the generator’s exhaust tube, made of

black iron, had deteriorated from the inside out. While its outer

surface appeared intact, the tube was damaged badly enough to

allow exhaust gases to escape into the boat’s cabin. The part, a pipe

nipple that threads into the exhaust elbow, is used only on Kohler’s 7.5kw

model, was original to the generator and is located in an area

difficult to reach and inspect