Judge OKs settlement in boy’s drowning
Parents have an obligation to keep their children out of flooded streets, a city official says.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN — The father of a 10-year-old Warren boy who drowned in 2003 in a city storm drain is glad that his lawsuit has been settled.
“It’s been too long. I’m glad it’s over for the sake of my family,” John Keytack of Brookfield said Friday after Judge Thomas A. Swift of Trumbull County Probate Court approved a $500,000 settlement and the distribution of the money.
Keytack’s son Johnny died July 21, 2003, after being swept away during a storm.
The boy, of Bonnie Brae Avenue in Warren at the time, was playing with friends in a 3-foot ditch that contained a storm drain at Cornell and Clearmont avenues on the city’s Northeast Side.
“Part of me died when he died,” Keytack said of his son. “I loved my son. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him,” said Keytack, a retired Air Force officer.
“The legal process has ended,” said Keytack’s attorney, Michael Scala of Warren.
He pointed out that the city spent $275 to cap the drain.
Scala said the city’s insurance carrier, Travelers Insurance, paid the $500,000 on the city’s behalf.
Of that amount, Scala will receive $166,666 plus $4,385 for expenses. Keytack will receive $2,000 for his fiduciary services.
The balance, or $326,948, is divided as follows: 25 percent each to Keytack and his former wife, Lory Keytack; 16 percent to each of their minor children, Julie and Joseph Keytack, which will be paid into a wrongful-death trust; and 9 percent each to their to adult daughters, JoAnn Mendoza and Gina Wargo.
Tom Angelo, director of the city’s water and waste water department, said it will take about $300,000 to repair the flooding problem in the area were the boy died.
Although some work was done to make the area safer, there are drains throughout the city that overflow during heavy rainfall, Angelo said.
The work was done, Angelo said, because children continued to play in the area during flooding because their parents weren’t watching them.
He explained that “individual responsibility” is required so nobody else dies.
“Children should not be out in the road. I can’t protect against a flooded road,” Angelo said.
He said parents have a responsibility to protect their children. Angelo noted that grating can’t be placed over each storm drain because it will become clogged with debris and the water will back up.
In the original lawsuit against the city, Keytack argued that the city was negligent in maintaining the storm drain. The suit was settled in November before it went to trial in common pleas court. The probate court then had to approve the settlement because it involved an estate.
yovich@vindy.com