Family members of three of the six teens who died in a traffic crash have filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
Staff report
WARREN
Family members of three of the six teens who died in a traffic crash March 10, 2013, about a mile south of downtown Warren have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit.
The suit names as defendants the city of Warren and its engineering department, Trumbull County commissioners, Trumbull County Engineer’s Office and three John Does.
The administrators of the estates of Dylan Ray, 15; Kirklan Behner, 15; and Andrique Bennett, 14; filed the suit in common pleas court.
Filed by Cleveland attorney James D. Falvey, it alleges that the guardrail, road, curbs and berm near the accident scene on Niles-Warren River Road were not properly maintained and led to the fatal accident.
Police said Alexis Cayson, 19, was driving a sport utility vehicle south on Niles-Warren River Road, also known as County Road 69, with seven passengers. She had neither drugs nor alcohol in her system, police said.
She was traveling 62 to 70 miles per hour on a road with a speed limit of 35 mph when the SUV crossed the center line and hit a guardrail on the other side, then flipped over the guardrail and overturned into a pond.
Cayson and five passengers, including Ray, Behner and Bennett, drowned. Two others escaped the vehicle and ran to a home on nearby Burton Street to get help.
Both survivors said Cayson was speeding before the accident.
The lawsuit says the defendants failed to provide adequate warning to motorists of “latent or concealed defects or peril of which defendants knew or should have known.”
The suit called the guardrail “sunken and inadequately cared for.”
The lawsuit seeks at least $25,000 in compensatory damages.
It’s unclear what governmental entity or entities are responsible for maintaining the road and guardrail in the area where the accident took place, and officials with the city and county could not be reached for comment late Monday.