A Union man has filed a wrongful death suit against the maker of the riding lawn mower his wife was operating when she was killed in an accident in 2008 and he is suing the local business which sold the mower.

William G. “Bill” Prince’s lawsuit against Ariens Company and Union Power Equipment was filed July 6 in the Union County Clerk of Court’s Office. Prince is the personal representative of the estate of Carol Prince, who died in the accident on May 20, 2008, in the yard of a home on Lockhart Highway in Sharon.

Prince is seeking actual and punitive damages and court costs in amounts to be determined by the court.

The accident site was two or three miles above Lockhart and about a half mile from the York County line. At the time of Mrs. Prince’s death, Chester County Coroner Tommy Williams said it appeared Mrs. Prince was going up an incline and the lawn mower turned over.

“It was a freak accident,” Williams said in an interview the day after Mrs. Prince’s death. “Just a bad thing. The lawn mower was on top of her. There were a lot of hills in that back yard.”

Williams said Mrs. Prince, who lived on 723 Old Pump Station Road in Union, died of head and neck injuries. She had operated Special Touch Services for 27 years.

The lawsuit, filed by Spartanburg lawyer Thomas A. Killoren Jr., alleges that Mrs. Prince purchased a Great Dane mower in 2005 from Union Power Equipment.

It flipped over and caused her death and in the final moments of her life she suffered severe pain and suffering, the suit said.

There were no warning signs or decals on the mower to warn Mrs. Prince of the machine’s “dangerous properties” the suit said.

The suit also alleges that a safety bar should have been installed on the mower.