Parents sue volunteer programs in son's death
The parents of a Chester County teen who fell to his death two years ago in an abandoned mine shaft while working with underprivileged children in Mexico are suing the companies that organized the trip.
The parents of a Chester County teen who fell to his death two years ago in an abandoned mine shaft while working with underprivileged children in Mexico are suing the companies that organized the trip.
Susan L. Patterson and Christopher Crane of West Chester, parents of Taylor P. Crane, filed a wrongful-death suit last week in Philadelphia court against Travel for Teens L.L.C. of Wayne and Casa de los Angeles, an Illinois corporation.
On July 20, 2007, Taylor Crane, 16, who would have been a senior at West Chester Henderson High School, was participating in a summer volunteer program and went on a field trip with 30 U.S. teens and 80 Mexican children. While playing tag with a group of children in the Cinco Senores mine in Guanajuato, Mexico, Crane fell into a 500-foot shaft that had no warning signs or railings, the suit said.
The failure of the program organizers to warn participants about the dangerous conditions constituted gross negligence, says the suit, which seeks more than $50,000 in damages. Officials from Travel for Teens and Casa de los Angeles declined comment. - Kathleen Brady Shea and Max Stendahl