West Greene senior killed in crash
Jesse Michael Benson
Jesse Michael Benson, 18, a senior at West Greene High School, was killed in a vehicle accident Tuesday morning in Gray Township.
GRAYSVILLE – A West Greene High School senior who was on his way to school Tuesday morning was killed in a two-vehicle accident on Route 21 in Gray Township.
State police said Jesse Michael Benson, 18, of 229 Finnegan Road, Wind Ridge, was traveling east in a Ford Ranger at a high speed when he attempted to pass a line of traffic near the Harveys-Aleppo Grange shortly before 8 a.m.
The front end of Benson’s truck was clipped as it passed a Ford F-350 truck operated by Brian Eugene Debolt, 42, of Cameron, W.Va., who was attempting to turn left onto Grange Road. As a result, Benson’s truck slid off the roadway, rolled and began to flip end over end. Benson, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle. Graysville firefighters administered CPR, but Benson was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:21 a.m. by Greene County Chief Deputy Coroner Mary Lewis.
Debolt and a passenger in his vehicle, Robert Howard Ostrander, 25, also of Cameron, were not injured.
“It’s just tragic, and it’s so sad for everybody. It is something you never want to hear about anybody else’s child,” said Thelma Szarell, superintendent of West Greene School District, when she learned of Benson’s death. “He was such a nice young man, just a really nice boy. He had a big group of close friends here at the school.”
Close friends described Benson as someone who loved the outdoors and enjoyed hunting, fishing and working on his family’s farm. Szarell said Benson was involved in the vocational-agricultural program at the school and was a member of Greene County 4-H, showing his steers. Benson placed multiple times at the annual Greene County 4-H Market Steer auctions.
“With all of my four kids and their (many) friends, he was the most polite young man I’ve ever met and genuinely honest,” said Marie Coffman, whose twin sons, Jeremy and Joshua, were best friends with Benson.
Coffman’s daughter, Chelsey Holloway, an administrative assistant to Szarell, said Benson was “very funny and extremely polite.”
“It was always ‘yes ma’am,’ ‘no ma’am’ and ‘yes sir,’ ‘no sir,'” Holloway said of her brothers’ friend. “He worked with his dad a lot on the farm. He was an extremely hard worker.”
Holloway recalled Benson helping his stepfather, George Finnegan, put up hay and work with the cattle on the farm early in the morning before heading to school.
“He was a sweetheart, and just a typical teenage boy who liked hanging out with his friends. Being around the bonfire with them was probably one of his favorite things,” said Coffman. “He was fun to be around and just lit up the room when he entered it. He is really going to be missed by a lot of people.”