LEHI, Utah -- For the first time, the father of a 5-year-old girl who was hit and killed by a car in Lehi is speaking out.
Joe Ferrazzano said he will cherish hundreds of beautiful memories, rather than the last moment he had with his little girl Stella, lying lifeless on a Lehi hospital bed.
Ferrazzano rushed to the hospital Thursday afternoon after her got the emotional call from his mother-in-law. She told him Stella had been hit by a car in her preschool parking lot and it all happened right in front of his ex-wife.
“She is beyond distraught," Ferrazzano said. "What I’m feeling cannot compare to what she felt because from what I understand she witnessed everything."
Police say Stella was walking hand-in-hand with her mother and little sister when she suddenly broke away and ran into the path of an oncoming car.
“She’s still here," Ferrazzano said. "I feel her. My ex-wife feels her. Everybody feels her."
Ferrazzano described his middle daughter as the peace-maker, always solving fights with her two sisters.
“She’s a sweet little baby, I love her so much," he said. "She was just a sweet spirit."
It’s a spirit that lives on in the hearts of her family and all the people she touched during her five years.
“It’s not so much that she’s gone, I know she is in a much better place than you and I and my ex-wife," Ferrazzano said. "It’s just the wait. How long it’s going to take for me to see her again. That's painful to think."
Ferrazzano says there are two ways you can donate to raise money for funeral expenses for the family. One is a GoFundMe account started by his sister. Donations can also be made through US Bank branches by donating to the Stella Ferrazzano relief fund, account number 153153975336.
The crash is one of three fatal accidents involving juvenile pedestrians and cars in Utah this week.
