Teens Charged in ATV Fatality

Miami County authorities have charged two teenagers in connection with an ATV crash that killed a 17-year-old student.

Miami County Attorney Elizabeth Sweeney-Reeder said Friday that 18-year-old William Mahaffy Sutherland of Overland Park has been charged with aggravated endangering a child and unlawfully hosting minors consuming alcohol. Sweeney-Reeder says another person who was 17 at the time of the crash is charged in juvenile court with involuntary manslaughter-DUI.

They’re charged in connection with the November 2012 death of Tyler Rathbun. Rathbun was a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School when he died in an ATV crash in a field outside Paola. The ATV driver was flown to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and two other passengers were uninjured.

Sutherland’s lawyer didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.