(LOUISVILLE, July 13th, 2005) -- A Louisville family is in mourning after a stunt went terribly wrong. Nineteen-year-old Benjamin Watson, a straight A student from Jeffersontown died over the weekend after he fell off a moving automobile doing what's known as "car surfing." WAVE 3 Investigator Eric Flack has more.
Jim Watson has plenty of pictures to remind him of the happy times he's had with his 19-year-old son, Benjamin. But those memories now end in heartbreak with a tragic accident on July 9th.
It was a promising life cut suddenly short. Ben, the middle child of five, had recently finished his freshman year at Western Kentucky University. He was attending on a full scholarship, and maintaining a 4.0 grade point average.
But a momentary lapse in judgment ended all that potential. "It was a tragic, stupid thing that he did," Jim said.
It happened around 8:30 Saturday night in the city of Westwood off Westport Road. Ben's friends were inside the car, and he was riding on the roof. It's a practice known as "car surfing."
Norman Lewis said he "saw this red car go this way and it had a boy on top, and he was lying there on his stomach, holding on, with his hands on either side, going pretty fast."
Police say Ben either lost his grip or let go as a marked police car appeared from the opposite direction. That's when Ben fell from the car, and his head hit the road. He died the following day at the hospital of respiratory failure caused by head trauma.
The family later found out that Ben's best friend was behind the wheel. "We don't blame anybody," Jim said. "Nobody said 'you get up on that car, we'll drive down the road.' He got up there and said 'watch me.'"
The family stresses they don't want any charges filed against the driver. There were no alcohol or drugs involved.
Jim says his son may be gone but he will always be with him in spirit. He says there is not a hole in his heart -- just a hurt.
"We have pictures and we have memories and we have friends," Jim said. "But we don't have him. And I'd throw all these away to have him walk in that door because it hurts that much."
Ben was thinking about trying to transfer to MIT, which recruited him once while he was at student at Manual.
Jim says Ben eventually wanted to join the Peace Corps.
Ben's funeral is set for Thursday morning at Beulah Presbyterian Church on Bardstown Road, where the family worships.
Police say there have been about a dozen incidents of car surfing in Kentucky in the past five years where people were hurt. In 1999 a southern Indiana teenager died while car surfing at a Clarksville mall parking lot.