Tot’s Death Shocks Neighborhood : Tragedy: A 3-year-old is struck and killed by a car in a bizarre accident that leaves his close-knit community groping for answers.

Grief-stricken family members and neighbors on Saturday struggled to comprehend the death of a 3-year-old boy riding his tricycle, a tragedy that has shaken and torn this close-knit Huntington Beach street.

Joshua Dugan, 3, died Friday night after being run over by a neighbor who was backing his car out of a corner driveway in the 6100 block of Cornell Street. Joshua, a charming tyke with a big vocabulary, was riding his trike on the sidewalk just before dusk.

“You wonder why something like this would happen,” said Pernie Westly, the boy’s grandfather. “It’s just a shame. Nothing like this has ever happened here before.”

The driver, Raymond Vaughn II, has not been charged in the accident. Vaughn, 24, was backing his car out of the curved driveway of his parents’ home, which is two doors down from the Westly home. Neither drugs nor alcohol was a factor, said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Ron Burgess.

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The Westlys and the Vaughns have been neighbors for more than 30 years. They were original owners of the four- and five-bedroom homes built in the mid-1960s, Westly and neighbors said. Cornell Street is a quiet, well maintained haven filled with families, where couples dote on their yards, homes, children and grandchildren.

“Everyone has always been there for each other,” said Lorraine Meunier, who lives across the street. “The little boy and his parents had only been there two or three weeks, probably less than a month.”

The boy’s parents, Shawn and Paula Dugan, and their two sons had just returned to Orange County from Indiana, where most of Shawn Dugan’s family lives, relatives and neighbors said. They wanted to be closer to Paula’s family and were living with her parents. They had just gotten jobs and were saving for a place of their own.

“It’s just unfathomable that something like this could happen,” Meunier said.

She and her son, Jimmy Meunier, canvassed the neighborhood Saturday, collecting more than $700 for the Dugans. Jimmy Meunier and Paula Dugan were classmates in the 1989 class at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, Lorraine Meunier said.

Just days ago, Joshua Dugan was pushing a little plastic lawn mower in his grandparents’ frontyard. Meunier said the boy told her: “ ‘I’m helping Reynaldo [the gardener].’ He was just so precious.”

“That little boy was so smart,” said Westly, the grandfather. “He talked with everyone, and he loved to flirt with the girls.”

Vaughn’s family declined to comment. The two families have not spoken since the accident, Westly said.

“They don’t know what to say, and we don’t know what to say,” Westly said. “So what do you do?”

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE --- This story has been edited to reflect a correction to the original published text. The name of the high school in Huntington Beach is Marina High. --- END NOTE ---