Matthew Bray, 50, was sentenced Thursday, Sept. 17, to 82 months in prison for his role in the death of Olathe South student Ben Van Buskirk and an unrelated child sex crime.

Bray pleaded guilty in July to DUI aggravated battery, leaving the scene of an accident and indecent solicitation of a child, the Olathe Reporter reported. Judge Neil B. Foth presided over the sentencing in Johnson County District Court.

Van Buskirk, 17, died Saturday, July 27, 2024, on Interstate 35 in Johnson County. His mother, Carrie Van Buskirk, said in her victim impact statement that Ben had stopped on the interstate to help someone injured in wreckage left behind by Bray's crash. He had taken his senior pictures just one week before his death.

"No parent should ever have to reconcile the fact that their child's greatest strength became the circumstance of their death," Carrie Van Buskirk said at the sentencing. "But we do."

She described a 17-year-old who was afraid of the dark and still preferred a light on at night, yet rushed onto a pitch-black interstate to help a stranger. His body was thrown 100 feet across the asphalt on impact, she said.

Carrie Van Buskirk told the court that Bray would serve only seven months for the hit-and-run portion of his sentence. She directed sharp criticism at Kansas lawmakers, saying they had failed to give the state and the court the tools to deliver justice because of the absence of Good Samaritan protections in the state's criminal code.

The Van Buskirk family lived in Olathe for 13 years before moving to Lakeville, Minnesota, in May 2026. Carrie Van Buskirk said the family was forced to rebuild their lives away from the community where Ben grew up.

Ben had dreamed of attending the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University, where he hoped to earn an internship with the Philadelphia Eagles, 76ers or Phillies, his mother said. He never experienced his senior year. The family said they had to campaign to have his name read aloud at what would have been his graduation and accepted a posthumous diploma.

Avery Mullins, Ben's best friend, also delivered a victim impact statement. She told the court she received the call about Ben's death at 11:42 a.m. on July 27, 2024. She carries a tattoo of his handwriting on her arm, taken from a sticky note he left on her car.

No statement from Bray, his defense attorney or the prosecution was available in published reports. No legislative action on Good Samaritan protections for bystanders at accident scenes in Kansas has been announced.