In Their Own Words: Parents of a Six Year Old Run Over in Teegarden Park Tell Their Story

An average Tredyffrin Parks and Recreation Board meeting will have two, maybe three people in the audience. Last week dozens of parents, community leaders and Pop Warner football league coaches jammed the community meeting room at the

They were there to make a visual statement and to ask for the Board's help after in one of the two parking lots in Teegarden Park. The lot serves the fields where the Conestoga Generals (Pop Warner league) players practice every week during the fall football season. It is set hundreds of yards back from Cassatt Road, under the PECO high tension lines and towers. You can't see the parking lot from Cassatt Road. It's very easy to drive right past the driveway entrance, which is just north of the squash club, without even noticing there's a road there.

It was at the end of that road, in an unlined parking lot, that parents say is too dark after sunset, that first grader Shane Carpenter was partially run over by a driver in a big SUV. That was around 6 p.m.back on September 15. (The sun was still up at the time of the accident but parents emphasize that after dark the parking lot is very dark eventhough the practice fields have lights).  Today Shane is back with his first grade class at, still with scars on his face but on the mend.

It's not been an easy road for the Carpenters. Their ordeal started on a normal football practice night  when Shane was running after his 10 year old brother as he walked to his football practice. Shane, tripped in the parking lot, fell , and was partially run over. From there it was a race to get him to the hospital. Their saga started with an ambulance ride from the parking lot under the power lines to a field where a helicopter could land, to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.

Now the Carpenters are facing a huge bill for the helicopter ride and have found themselves at the center of a push to improve conditions at the parking lot. After last week's Parks and Recreation Board meeting the Carpenters, the football league and the board all seem to be satisfied that the discussion is headed in the right direction.

Click on the clips to heard the Carpenters tell their story to TE Patch, in their own words.