




Carrying a heavy heart, Kung Patel stood up from his wheelchair, with a candle and rose in hand, and then paused, alongside dozens of supporters at the site where the boy and his father suffered immeasurable pain.
Just 12 days prior, Kung turned 14 years old, and his family had been en route from their Franklin home to pick up a cake in Blackstone to celebrate his birthday. And then everything changed.
An alleged drunk driver plowed into their vehicle head-on, causing fatal injuries to Kung’s 5-year-old sister Krisha and 38-year-old mother Minaben Patel. Krisha died shortly after the devastating crash on May 24, and Minaben died earlier this week.
Family, friends and community members came together Thursday evening at the site of the crash, in front of Franklin dentist’s office, fitness center and day spa, to grieve, sing, pray, and place flowers at a memorial that has grown in Minaben and Krisha’s memory.
The pain is raw.
Franklin resident Kiran Kumar Patel grew close with the family, living nearby over the years. The crash brought him to tears when he learned about it, he recounted.
“We said, ‘Why God? You did this to such a nice, innocent family,’” Kumar Patel said. “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 Center in Worcester for treatment. A medical flight flew Krisha to an area hospital.
Kung suffered broken bones and damage to internal organs.
Atulkumar Patel, subsequently released from the medical center, told a responding officer at the scene that the family had been en route 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 said. “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 told police that he drank two beers while at a landscaping job that afternoon before he opened a 1.75-liter bottle of Tito’s Vodka and “began drinking straight out of it,” on his way home from Plainville, according to an incident report.
The results of a breath test taken at the scene showed the man’s blood alcohol content at 0.189, more than double the legal limit of 0.08, according to the incident report.
Blanchard is being held on $250,000 cash bail on a slew of charges that include motor vehicle homicide while driving negligently and under the influence of alcohol. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf during an arraignment at Wrentham District Court last week.
“It fractured us, it’s terrible,” Franklin resident Nancy Dowd said of when she learned about 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?”