A Kent-Meridian High student could still face charges in connection with a March 31 vehicle accident that resulted in the death of Lupo Benson, 18, a senior at the school.
“We haven’t made a charging decision,” said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in a Monday email, about the student driving the car when Benson fell off the hood. “The case is still under review.”
Kent Police spokesman Melanie Robinson confirmed that accident investigators turned the case over to prosecutors.
Benson died on April 1 from injuries he suffered falling off the hood of a car at the school’s parking lot shortly after school let out on March 31.
“(Benson) was riding on the hood of the vehicle and was thrown from the vehicle when the vehicle made a sharp turn while in the school parking lot,” according to a Kent Police media release.
The driver is not being named by the Kent Reporter because he has not yet been charged with any crime.
In a similar case in 2013 in Salem, Ore., a 16-year girl was convicted in 2014 of criminally negligent homicide in Marion County after she drove a car into a store parking lot that resulted in the death of a 17-year-old girl, who was riding atop a vehicle in what’s known as “car surfing.”
The driver pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and received five years probation, prohibition against driving for five years and 120 hours of community service, including presentations to area high schools about the dangers of car surfing, according to a report on statesmanjournal.com.
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