Two brothers, ages 6 and 7, were killed in Missouri on Friday when the car the 7-year-old was driving crashed and caught fire.
A spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol, Sgt. Andy Bell, said the boys left their grandparents' home in a car, drove through a field and then on to a county road in an unincorporated area east of Kansas City. The car, a 2007 Buick Lacrosse, belonged to their grandparents, Bell said.
"It's pretty unique to say the least and devastating," Bell said.
The patrol's report on the crash said the car became airborne more than once, struck a guardrail and a guy-wire, overturned and struck a tree, before eventually landing on its roof and catching fire.
The boys were pronounced dead at the scene. Their names have not been released.
According to the report, the crash occurred about 4:20 p.m.
"We believe that speed had to have been a contributing factor for them to have traveled, flipped, et cetera," Bell said.
The car was traveling east on East Blue Mills Road when it ran off the road, the report states.
The Highway Patrol and Jackson County Sheriff’s Department are investigating. Bell said the sheriff’s office was looking into how the boys came to have possession of the car. A sheriff’s department spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.