Police identify boy, 2, killed by truck in his driveway

Kansas City police on Tuesday identified a 2-year-old boy killed Monday night after his father accidentally backed over him in their driveway as Benjamin K. Thompson.

Benjamin would have turned 3 in November. The accident occurred about 8 p.m. in the 8400 block of Hillcrest Road on a wide gravel parking area in front of the house.

Investigators on Tuesday released more details about the accident.

According to police: The boy approached his mother, who was near a parked vehicle on the north side of the driveway, and asked for a toy. She gave him a handheld videogame, and he walked behind his father’s 1997 Ford F-150, which was next to the parked vehicle. The boy apparently was trying to get to the fenced-in front yard on the other side of his father’s truck.

Meanwhile, the 36-year-old father thought the boy was already playing on the trampoline in the front yard, so he started backing up.

No one saw the boy get hit, but the father felt as if he had struck something and he stopped.

The mother realized the boy was under the rear tire and tried to push the truck off the boy and get her husband’s attention. The father then pulled the truck forward off the boy.

The father had planned to back the truck up to pull a log out of the driveway. Several other people were outside the home at the time, helping to build a fence.

Police said there were no signs of impairment, neglect or criminal activity by the parents, but the father volunteered to provide a blood sample. Veteran investigators said it was one of the most difficult accident scenes they had worked.

Wanda Thompson, the boy’s grandmother, said the family is devastated.

“He was my son’s life, and now my son is blaming himself. He is taking it too hard,” she told KCTV5, The Star’s reporting partner. “Now (Benjamin) is gone, and there is nothing you can do. Love your kids while you have them. … Please, if you got children, please make sure you look out for your kids because they could get by, and you don’t even know it.”