Carrying a heavy coronary heart, Kunj Patel stood up from his wheelchair, with a candle and rose in hand, after which paused, alongside dozens of supporters on the website the place the boy and his father suffered immeasurable ache.
Simply 12 days prior, Kunj turned 14 years outdated, and his household had been en route from their Franklin house to select up a cake in Blackstone to rejoice his birthday. After which every part modified.
An alleged drunk driver plowed into their automobile head-on, inflicting deadly accidents to Kunj’s 5-year-old sister Krisha and 38-year-old mom Minaben Patel. Krisha died shortly after the devastating crash on Could 24, and Minaben died earlier this week.
Household, pals and neighborhood members got here collectively Thursday night on the website of the crash, in entrance of Franklin dentist’s workplace, health middle and day spa, to grieve, sing, pray, and place flowers at a memorial that has grown in Minaben and Krisha’s reminiscence.
The ache is uncooked.
Franklin resident Kiran Kumar Patel grew shut with the household, dwelling close by over time. The crash introduced him to tears when he realized about it, he recounted.
“We said, ‘Why God? You did this to such a nice, innocent family,’” Kumar Patel mentioned. “This is not the time to take away two family members.”
Emergency Responders rushed Minaben Patel, her son, Kung, and husband, Atulkumar, from the scene to UMass Memorial Medical Middle in Worcester for therapy. A medical flight flew Krisha to an space hospital.
Kunj suffered damaged bones and injury to inner organs.
Atulkumar Patel, subsequently launched from the medical middle, instructed a responding officer on the scene that the household had been en path to Blackstone for his son’s birthday celebration when suspect James Blanchard, 21, of Franklin, plowed into them in a pickup truck.
“When I saw the news, I was pained,” North Attleboro resident Saeed Ahmed mentioned. “I have a 5-year-old daughter. It really touched me. I can’t imagine how the family is keeping up with this. I came here with my friends to show solidarity.”
Blanchard allegedly instructed police that he drank two beers whereas at a landscaping job that afternoon earlier than he opened a 1.75-liter bottle of Tito’s Vodka and “began drinking straight out of it,” on his means house from Plainville, in response to an incident report.
The outcomes of a breath check taken on the scene confirmed the person’s blood alcohol content material at 0.189, greater than double the authorized restrict of 0.08, in response to the incident report.
Blanchard is being held on $250,000 money bail on a slew of prices that embrace motorized vehicle murder whereas driving negligently and inebriated. A not responsible plea was entered on his behalf throughout an arraignment at Wrentham District Courtroom final week.
“It fractured us, it’s terrible,” Franklin resident Nancy Dowd mentioned of when she realized in regards to the crash. “We didn’t know them, but we’re all one family in the world.”
Fellow resident Frank Falvey added: “There’s simply a spirit drawing me here to share the grief and the sorrow of what happened and why it happened. Why did this have to happen?”
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