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Driver, 88, receives 6 years probation for fatal crash

E-mail|Link|Comments () August 6, 2009 01:18 PM

(Matthew J. Lee/Globe staff)

Mayuri Patel (left) and Priyanka Patel held a picture of their cousin, Diya Patel, 4, who was struck and killed by a car in front of the family's home in June.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

DEDHAM -- In a quiet, matter-of-fact voice, Ilse Horn, 88, described today a sunny Saturday in June when she drove through a crosswalk in Stoughton and struck and killed a 4-year-old girl.

"I heard a thud," Horn said in Norfolk Superior Court as she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor
charge of negligent motor vehicle homicide. "Oh my God, what happened? Then I saw the little girl on the floor."

The impact sent Diya Patel flying 62 feet through the air. She was in the middle of the crosswalk, 36 feet from the curb when Horn struck her in the middle of the right lane. Patel had been walking a few feet ahead of her grandfather and two siblings. As her car barreled ahead without breaking, Horn passed a sign 85 feet from the girl warning of the crosswalk.

"I feel guilty," Horn said today."It was my car that hit this girl. There was no two questions about it."

Judge Paul Chernoff sentenced Horn to six years probation and ordered her to pay a $200 fine for a crosswalk violation. The sentence was far below the 15 years probation requested by prosecutors, but well above the one-year probation recommended by the defense.

"There are no words that can express our grief at this time," the girl's father wrote in a victim impact statement read in court. "Probably more should be done by the Commonwealth to regulate elderly drivers. We would hope so."

This was the second time that Horn had been behind the wheel during a fatal accident. Her husband was killed on Sept. 14, 1992, in a crash in California.

"She lost consciousness and went off the road," defense attorney Michael B. Galvin said. "She was badly injured and her husband was killed."

Horn has lived a long life steeped in tragedy. As a Jewish teenager in 1939, she fled her native Germany with her parents to avoid the wrath of the Nazis. The family moved first to England and then to the United States.

While the family escaped the Holocaust, Horn's mother remained traumatized by their times living as Jews in Nazi Germany. She killed herself after the family moved to the United States, Galvin said today in court. It was the only time during the hearing that Horn showed emotion.

The Registry of Motor Vehicles revoked her license immediately after Patel was killed on June 13. The judge today also ordered her not to drive any type of motorized vehicle and never to own, borrow, or lease a car.

State lawmakers have been pushing for legislation that would require road and vision tests for drivers over 85 seeking to renew their license.