Elderly driver pleads guilty in death of Stoughton girl

(NECN: Ally Donnelly, Dedham, Mass.) – Leaving district court in Dedham, Massachusetts Ilse Horn had nothing to say to the family of four-year-old Diya Patel. In June, the 88-year-old Canton, Massachusetts woman struck and killed Diya with her car as the little girl crossed Route 138 in Stoughton with her siblings and grandfather. The family was in the crosswalk and Horn admits she did not brake, in fact she says, she didn’t know she had hit anything. Thursday, the elderly driver changed her plea from not guilty to guilty of motor vehicle homicide. Wearing a bright green jacket, Horn seemed alert and composed in court. Though assistant district attorney Debra Payton recounted gruesome details of the crash, the only time Horn seemed emotional was when her lawyer recounted her family’s flee from Nazi Germany and her mother’s suicide. Inside the convenience store where he works, Diya’s grandfather — who was with her when she died — could not stop sobbing. Govind Patel speaks very little English but misses his granddaughter beyond measure. Ada Payton read a victim’s impact statement from her parents in court. Judge Paul Chernoff sentenced Horn to six years probation. Because alcohol was not a factor in the crash, the charges of motor vehicle homocide with negligent operation are considered a misdemeanor. The Stoughton accident was one in a string of recent crashes involving elderly drivers and has renewed calls for more frequent and stringent testing of seniors behind the wheel. The Patels echoed the pleas.