3 generations mourn
Death of Stoughton 4-year-old devastates clan
STOUGHTON - The women sat in a circle on the wooden floor of the living room yesterday, somber-eyed and quiet. In the background drifted a melody from their native India, a mourning mantra that will play for five days to commemorate 4-year-old Diya Patel, who died less than 24 hours after being struck by a car Saturday while crossing the street with her grandfather.
Diya's death has crippled family members, who struggled to speak of the tiny girl with bird-like movements, laughing black eyes, and a wide, toothy grin. She loved the color pink, dancing in front of the television, and dressing up, they said.
Govind Patel, who was with Diya when she was struck, couldn't speak without tears. He doted on the girl, who often would wait for him to come home before she would go to sleep.
"Very loved, my granddaughter," he said, sobbing. "Too much heart."
On Saturday morning, Govind Patel helped Diya dress, fixed her hair, then took her and her two siblings to a nearby Shaw's supermarket, said Mayuri Patel, a cousin.
The group was crossing Washington Street at the corner of Lincoln just after 11:30 a.m. when Diya was struck by a
The woman has not been charged in connection with the accident but has been cooperat ing with police, said David Traub, a spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney's office. It was unclear yesterday whether charges are forthcoming.
Yesterday, Govind Patel said his grandchildren were nearly through the crosswalk when the Camry seemed to appear out of nowhere and struck Diya.
"A little bit more, and four people would have been gone," he said.
Bill Carreiro, an off-duty Stoughton fire lieutenant, was at Dave & Vinny's Barber Shop across the street with his 10-year-old son, who was getting a haircut, when he heard the crash.
Telling his son to remain inside, Carreiro ran out to see Govind Patel, crying and draped over Diya. His thoughts, he said, immediately went to the girl, who, according to a bystander, had been thrown by the impact.
"I just tunneled toward the kid," he recalled yesterday, describing the next few moments when he and a nurse who had been driving by worked to revive the girl. "Within a minute or two, we got a pulse back."
Diya was transported to Tufts Medical Center in Boston. She died at about 2:30 a.m., said Mayuri Patel.
After many years as a paramedic and 11 with the fire department, Carreiro said yesterday, he knew the girl's injuries were severe, although he had been hoping for the best.
"You do everything you can, you do all you can do," he said after hearing of Diya's death. "Unfortunately, sometimes you get a lousy outcome."
State Police helped Stoughton authorities reconstruct the crash yesterday, using surveying equipment that they set up at the crosswalk, which is marked with white lines but has no stop sign or stoplight. According to state law, even when no traffic signals are in place, a driver must "yield the right of way, slowing down or stopping if need be" for pedestrians in a crosswalk.
Someone had left a single pink rose, wrapped in a spray of white baby's breath, on grass near the site.
Yesterday afternoon, Theresa Stanley of Stoughton walked with her two daughters to the accident site, where they left a bouquet of white and pink flowers. After hearing of the accident, the 42-year-old Stanley said, she prayed: "Please, God. Please, God, make her live."
"Our heart goes out to the family," added Stanley, who did not know Diya. She said she wanted her daughters Hannah, 7, and Tanya, 12, to learn two things from the accident: compassion for others and caution.
"Even though you're in a crosswalk, you have to be observant," she said. "You have to be aware and use caution at all times."
Several blocks away, the family, from Gujarat, India, gathered at the apartment complex where Diya lived. Some relatives called for more oversight of elderly drivers.
Saturday's crash was the third serious accident involving an elderly driver this month. On June 2, a 93-year-old man plowed his car into a Danvers
"Starting at 60, go every year and check on your eyes," said an uncle, who is also named Govind Patel.
Others focused on remembering Diya, who would have turned 5 next month. She had been eager to get older so she could start school.
"Her bigger sister every day goes to school, so she wanted to go to school," said Sneha Patel, speaking on behalf of her sister-in-law, Diya's mother, Malika Patel, who sat silently nearby.
Priyanka Patel, a relative, described Diya in a phone interview as quiet, obedient, and a very smart girl, who had just started learning to speak English, her second language.
"She was very intelligent for her age," Priyanka Patel said of Diya. "Her grandfather was saying how she was so excited to go to school and every day she would say, "Grandpa, everybody's going to school. Why not me?' "
Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com. 
