Wrongful death lawsuit filed in KC explosion

Parents of woman killed in Kansas City restaurant fire, explosion file wrongful death lawsuit

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The parents of a woman killed in an explosion and fire at a Kansas City restaurant have filed a lawsuit against several companies.

Megan Cramer, 46, died Feb. 19 in a gas explosion that destroyed JJ's restaurant and injured several other people. A drilling project was underway outside the restaurant, where Cramer was a hostess, when a gas line was severed.

Cramer's body was recovered the day after the explosion.

Cramer's family filed the wrongful death lawsuit Friday in Jackson County against Missouri Gas Energy, Time Warner Cable Midwest, USIC Locating Services Inc., Southern Union Co., Heartland Midwest LLC and an employee of Heartland, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/15qfijz ). Other lawsuits have also been filed since the explosion.

"We love and loved Megan," Cramer's mother, Genny Cramer, 73, of Springfield, told The Star on Saturday. "We miss her dreadfully and hope that all of this will result in better regulations, and following those regulations, so there are no future Megans to be lost."

Vicki Anderson Granado, spokeswoman for MGE and Southern Union Co., said those companies do not comment on pending litigation. Time Warner Cable spokesman Mike Pedelty also declined comment, telling The Associated Press it was because the matter is "still in the fact-finding stage."

Messages that the AP left with representatives of the other companies named in the lawsuit were not immediately returned Sunday.

___

Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com