Family of another boy who died in 2013 car accident file suit

Staff report

WARREN

The family of another of the teens who died in a March 10, 2013, car accident on Niles-Warren River Road south of downtown has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Six youths age 14 to 19 died when the car in which they were riding left the roadway, hit a guardrail and flipped into a pond, where they drowned.

On Wednesday, Lisa Williamson and Gary L. Daniel of Homewood Avenue Southeast filed the suit on behalf of the estate of Brandon A. Murry.

The administrators of the estates of Dylan Ray, 15; Kirklan Behner, 15; and Andrique Bennett, 14, filed a separate suit in common pleas court in September.

The newest lawsuit names as defendants the city of Warren and its engineering department, the county commissioners, county engineer, and three John Does.

It seeks damages of at least $25,000, saying the defendants were responsible for the care and maintenance of the road, berm, curb and guardrails in the area of the accident.

The suit says the guardrail the car hit was “sunken and inadequately cared for ... causing the vehicle to flip over the guardrail.”

The suit says the defendants had a “duty to exercise ordinary and reasonable care in the care and maintenance” of the guardrail and other parts of the road but failed to do so, resulting in the death of Murry, 14.

The two others who died in the accident were Ramone M. White, 15, and Alexis Cayson, 19. Two other teens — Brian K. Henry II, then 18; and Asher C. Lewis, then 15, — escaped the wreckage and survived.

The county and city filed separate responses to the earlier lawsuit denying many of the allegations or denying that they have information to answer the allegations. Both lawsuits make similar claims.

The county’s response says the roadway in the area of the accident and the guardrail involved are the city’s responsibility. The location is just north of the Warren city limits.

The city’s response to the earlier lawsuit says the driver of the car, Cayson, “negligently, wantonly, recklessly and/or intentionally” drove the vehicle into the guardrail.

The county’s response similarly says Cayson “negligently and recklessly operated the vehicle.”