5-year-old boy, mother hit by van while walking home from trick-or-treating

BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — A mother says she and her 5-year-old son were hit by a distracted driver on Halloween night.

Georgia State Patrol said a 47-year-old driver hit the woman and her son while they were in a crosswalk on Jefferson Street in Statham.

“I really went into panic mode. I started screaming, begging for someone to get him and make sure he’s OK,” Katlin Bentley said.

Bentley said she and her husband and two sons were on their way home from trick-or-treating. She said her 2-year-old was in a stroller and she pushed it out of the way when she saw the minivan driving towards them.

“I pushed the stroller to my husband and I tried to push Kross out of the way and I got hit,” she said.

She said her 5-year-old son, Kross, was pinned under the wheel of the van. He was taken to a hospital. The mother has a broken ankle.

“He was hollering about his leg. It was a lot of pain. It was really bad for him,” the boy’s father, Matthew Bentley said.

The family said the driver apologized before troopers cited him with failure to yield to a pedestrian.

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“He got out of the car screaming, ‘I was looking at my rearview mirror. I’m so sorry,’” Katlin Bentley said.

“I was mad at him for not paying attention to what he was doing. I was scared for my family’s life,” Matthew Bentley said.

Katlin Bentley said she’s lost two children and feared she was going to lose another. She said her 10-day-old daughter died in her arms a month ago.

“I was holding her and she had a little seizure and her heart stopped,” she said.

The family also lost a baby in 2014 when she was born with a congenital heart defect.

The mother said she wants drivers to remember to pay attention.

“Just watch out. You could hurt somebody’s baby,” she said.

The family said Kross will likely be in the hospital for a few more days.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page for those who would like to help with medical expenses.