T-Rantula before crashing at Brawl Under the Bridge
PITTSBURGH – A second lawsuit has been filed over a motorcycle crash at a 2024 professional wrestling event in Allegheny County, alleging a small girl hurt her ankle when T-Rantula – otherwise known as Munhall Borough council president Dave Younkins – skidded into a crowd.
Shayna Robinson said in a lawsuit filed in May in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas that her daughter sprained her ankle when Younkins and his son wrecked during their entrance to the ring at Brawl Under the Bridge in Homestead on July 13, 2024. The girl was six years old at the time, and her mother alleges the idea to have the Younkinses drive through a crowd was a “poorly conceived stunt.”
Video shows the crash. The suit says Robinson’s daughter “suffers mental trauma” from it and has incurred medical bills as a result.
Journalist Stephanie Mirah filed the first case last year against Younkins, his son and members of the Keystone State Wrestling Alliance. TribLIVE.com reported then that the event was canceled, leaving Younkins heartbroken.
“It was haunting me because I care about my fans so much,” he told the outlet.
The culprit was the riding surface, which went from black top to bricks to gravel. Younkins Sr. went down first, followed by his son.
“Shayna and KM are unable to get out of the way of the wrestlers on motorcycles coming directly in their direction,” Robinson’s suit says. “Shayna is struck by a motorcycle, causing injury to her left ankle.”
The defendants are accused of failing to ensure there were proper spectator safeguards in place. In Mirah’s case, she recently amended her complaint to add new defendants, like the vendor that provided alcohol for the crowd. Those providing security should have known there was a reasonable risk of injury when operating motorcycles through a “large and densely packed crowd” on “uneven and debris-covered pavement.”
Younkins told TribLive the gravel was like hitting black ice and called it “a very awful experience for me. There were people that got hurt.”
In court, his lawyer has filed an answer to Mirah’s case asserting defenses that others were negligent and spectators assumed a risk by attending.
