Tim Eaton/Caller-Times

On 8-year-old boy has died from injuries in a go-cart accident, and his parents have decided to help others in a way their caring son would have appreciated. They elected to donate his organs.

Jose Luis Benavides died late Sunday night at Driscoll Children's Hospital after a go-cart accident the day before.

The boy, who many people called Junior, was riding with his 2-year-old brother, Isaac, near his house on the 2600 block of Deer Street in the Arlington Heights area of Corpus Christi.

But Junior never made it home. A Ford F-350 pickup collided with the go-cart.

The driver of the truck told police he did not see the boys until just before the collision. The driver was not charged, police Capt. Robert McDonald said.

"We don't feel there is any fault with the driver," he said.

About 10,500 people are injured each year in accidents with go-carts, which are not street legal, according to statistics from 1985-1996 compiled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Of those accidents, 65 percent involved children younger than 15 years old.

Isaac escaped with only minor injuries. But Junior was taken to Driscoll Children's Hospital. His injuries were severe. He was kept alive on a ventilator, as doctors determined which children would receive his internal organs.

"That way, he can help others keep going," the boy's father and namesake, Jose Benavides, said outside the family home Monday.

"He can still be out there somewhere, and that was him. He'd help anybody."

On Monday afternoon, Benavides watched videos of his son playing football.

Junior loved the game and used to tell his father he would play at the University of Notre Dame. Junior's drive to help people was evident on the videotape as he helped up fallen players, his father said.

Besides football, the Tuloso-Midway Primary School third-grader enjoyed swimming, camping and fishing.

"He was Dad's guy," said an aunt, Terry Word. "He and his dad did everything."

Junior's father grasped a tiny Cub Scout belt in his hand Monday. Tags on the belt showed some of the boy's activities: archery, astronomy, roller-skating, volleyball, bowling, music, maps and compasses, baseball and two for BB shooting.

Funeral arrangements are pending as preparations are made for Junior's organs.

But one thing is for sure: The family decided to bury him in his Cub Scout uniform.