More than two years after 17-year-old Benjamin Van Buskirk was killed while trying to help a seriously injured woman on Interstate 35, the Lenexa man at the center of the case has been sentenced. Matthew Bray received 52 months in prison for aggravated battery while driving under the influence and seven months for failure to stop at an accident, according to Johnson County court proceedings held Thursday. He was also sentenced separately for an unrelated child sex crime.
According to fox4kc.com, the crash happened just before 2 a.m. on July 27, 2024, in the southbound lanes of I-35 north of Johnson Drive in Merriam. Bray, driving a Kia Sorento, rear-ended a Chevrolet Equinox and left the scene, leaving the Equinox stalled in the left lane of traffic, the station reported. Investigators said data from Bray's vehicle showed it was traveling 88 mph at the time of the crash, well above the posted 60 mph limit.
Van Buskirk, a passenger in a Honda CR-V that had stopped on the right shoulder, got out to help a woman in the Equinox who had been seriously injured in the initial collision, per the same account. A short time later, a Jeep Liberty rear-ended the Equinox and struck Van Buskirk. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. There is some discrepancy in how the fatal impact has been described: kansascity.com reports the Jeep Liberty collided with Van Buskirk after drifting across the interstate, while fox4kc.com's account describes the Jeep rear-ending the stalled Equinox before striking him.
Conflicting Accounts of the Sentence and Plea
The exact structure of Bray's crash-related sentence is disputed between outlets. fox4kc.com reported that the 52-month and seven-month sentences will be served consecutively, while kansascity.com's reporting indicates the sentences will run concurrently. The timing of Bray's guilty plea to the crash charges is similarly unsettled — fox4kc.com reported the plea came in June, while kansascity.com's account places it on July 21, 2026. Bray was initially charged with the crash-related offenses in August 2025, according to kansascity.com.
Kansascity.com also reports that Bray was sentenced to an additional 23 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections for an unrelated child sex crime. Per that outlet, Bray pleaded guilty in July 2026 to indecent solicitation of a child under the age of 14, with prosecutors alleging, per court records, that the offense took place between October 1, 2024, and June 23, 2025.
A Teen Remembered for Kindness
Van Buskirk's father told The Kansas City Star that his son loved animals, jokes and the Philadelphia Eagles. Friends and family have remembered him as a positive light in his family, according to the same report, and his family has held on to hope for closure in the case as it wound through the courts. His sentencing, which came a little over two years after the crash, marks a milestone in a case that began with a teenager stopping to help someone else in trouble on the side of the highway.
