A Massachusetts five-year-old is being remembered after a man pled not guilty in a fatal two-vehicle crash on Grove Street in Franklin.
A vigil was held for Krisha Patel at the crash site at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday.
According to Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey and Police Chief Thomas Lynch, the girl was a passenger in a car involved in a collision with a pickup truck at approximately 6:22 p.m. Saturday in the area of 76 Grove Street.
She was taken to a hospital where she was later pronounced deceased.
Her brother and mother, both passengers in the car, remain in the hospital. The father, who was driving the car, was released from the hospital after treatment. According to
NBC 10 Boston,
family members say that they don’t believe that the mother will survive her injuries.
The driver of the pickup truck, James N. Blanchard, 21, of Franklin, was arrested.
He was arraigned Tuesday on charges of motor vehicle homicide while driving negligently and under the influence of alcohol, three counts of operating under the influence of alcohol and causing serious bodily injury, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle with an open container of alcohol, and a marked lanes violation.
According to
NBC 10 Boston,
the family was travelling to Blackstone for the son’s birthday. The father told investigators that he saw the pickup in his lane and tried to swerve to avoid it but could not. Officers smelled alcohol on Blanchard, noticed he was slurring his words, and found two handles of vodka and beer inside the car.
According to court records, Blanchard pled not guilty and was held on $250,000 cash bail. He has a pretrial hearing scheduled for the end of June.
Leave a Reply