PALERMO, Maine — Residents here and in Bucksport on Monday remembered four men who died on Christmas Day in Maine’s deadliest car crash of the year.
Tyler Manduca, 18, and his 21-year-old brother Kyle Manduca, both of Bucksport, as well as 64-year-old Dennis Sturges and his father, Roy Lucier, 83, both of Palermo, were all killed in the crash. The two vehicles were headed to separate Christmas events with other family members when they collided.
Details were slow to emerge about the father and son from Palermo. Several business owners along Route 3, where the accident happened, said Monday local residents were in disbelief about the tragedy. Some said they knew Sturges and Lucier by name, but knew little about them. One man at a convenience store said he thought Sturges had moved to Palermo in the past couple of decades.
Blake Brown of Palermo said he knows members of the family and that they are drowning in grief. He said both men were retired and that Sturges was a veteran of the armed services.
“Everyone around here feels bad for both families,” said Brown.
In Bucksport, co-workers, bosses and a teacher remembered the Manduca brothers as hard workers who were easy to get along with.
Both brothers, who were graduates of Bucksport High School, had worked at the Bucksport McDonald’s for several years. Tyler worked there for more than three years before he decided to leave in April for a job down the street at Hannaford Bros. in the produce department.
Kyle worked at McDonald’s through high school but left to attend college in Massachusetts, according to Shane Mitchell, assistant store manager. Kyle continued working at McDonald’s when he returned to Bucksport, and was taking classes to become a shift manager. He mostly worked closing shifts, Mitchell said.
“When [Kyle] got here, he was just one of those guys you instantly liked,” Mitchell said.
“They were the nicest boys,” said Jenn Wingate, a training manager at McDonald’s. She fought back tears as she talked about how Tyler and Kyle Manduca always managed to make work fun for the other employees.
Kyle’s last day of work at McDonald’s was Christmas Eve, Wingate said.
“I just can’t even say good enough things about those two boys,” she said.
Mitchell said several McDonald’s employees were allowed to leave work early Monday. The news of the brothers’ deaths made it too difficult for them to get through their shift, he said.
The store manager offered to give every employee at the Bucksport McDonald’s the day off and bring in employees from other McDonald’s in the area, but most chose to work.
In the Bucksport Hannaford parking lot, 16-year-old Cody Gray, a Bucksport High School junior, took a break from gathering shopping carts to talk about Tyler Manduca. Gray said most of Tyler’s co-workers called him by his last name because they liked the way it sounded.
“He was really devoted to working,” Gray said, adding that the two were on the Bucksport High School track team together. Gray said Tyler enjoyed Airsoft, a sport in which participants shoot nonmetallic pellets from replica firearms, and paintball.
Gloria Deredin, a teacher at Bucksport Middle School who had taught Tyler when he was a boy, said she ran into him from time to time at Hannaford.
“He always made a point to come up and greet me,” she said. “In a small town, it just hits home. Losing a kid has such an impact.”
The brothers are survived by their mother and a sister.
Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland had said on Sunday evening that Tyler Manduca’s sport utility vehicle lost control at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday on Route 3 in Palermo. It skidded sideways into the path of a car driven by Sturges, which hit the SUV broadside.
“All four were killed instantly,” said McCausland, who attributed the crash to Tyler Manduca traveling too fast for road conditions. Route 3 was covered in a light snowfall at the time of the accident, McCausland said.
The brothers’ father, former Maine Department of Public Safety dispatcher Russell Manduca, died in January 2008 after a heart attack, according to McCausland.
“It’s a terrible thing that these two families will have this accident to remember on every future Christmas,” McCausland said Monday morning.
He said he doesn’t expect any updates about the accident.
BDN writer Christopher Cousins contributed to this report.
I am so sad about this. What a tragedy. I came upon this crash and it was horrible. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these men. And it’s even more tragic that it happened on Christmas Day.
The picture of Gloria Deredin was taken in Tozier’s store, not Tozier’s II.
so, how is this relavant. what a meaningless, trite statement in the midst of a major tragedy.
Don’t those poor people deserve to have their news story be accurate?
Relax. I was merely trying to correct an error in the article. If that was incorrect, what else might be? Do you believe everything you read, just because it’s on the internet or in a newspaper?
It could be very relevent considering Tozier’s II is a bar and Tozier’s is a store.
You are being silly.
Their mom and sister must be going through….I can’t imagine what.
To lose a husband and two sons in three years is something that is not supposed to happen.
Having lost a sister in a crash the day after thanksgiving years ago, I can only offer my sympathy and some understanding of how the holiday will be forever dark.
I completely agree. My thoughts and prayers are with both families. After reading that the boy’s father died close to 4 years ago, I cannot imagine the pain for the mother and any remaining family members. Everyone in both families is struggling, I am sure. Keeping them all in my prayers.
correction, they were divorcedfor sometime now and for the manducas there was there stepmother and there stepsisster and her family in augusta also,lets not forget about that, it is so hard right now on the whole family it is on both family’s are holding up as best as they can .they are all devastated by this tragedy.
Actually – they leave behind a mother, 2 sisters a step-father and a step-mother.
Just think for a moment, what if this was me? God bless these families. They need our thoughts and prayers during this time.
the state should be useing salt and sand instead of this calicum clorede,all that stuff does is rot out the cars and state equipment, we lost a nephew in march for the same reason,look at the photo no sand at all,
That’s right; blame somebody else. It’s never our fault. It’s winter- slow down- and live.
Agreed – I looked out the window Christmas morning and decided it was a good day to stay home.
Sadly, calcium chloride, sand , salt would not of saved their lives…..driving conditions and slowing down would have. Very, very sad.
I also lost my nephew a few years ago because of the calicum clorede. It was done away with out in MN years ago just for this reason.
Salt is run when the temps are above a certian degree, Then salt with calicum to help it work on colder temps, sand is used when neither work at below 10 below if i remeber correctly. Im a ex state employee who has 20 plus years of plowing and sanding. the only thing that truly works is driving to road conditions.It also dose not matter if you have an suv, a 4 wheel drive truck, or car, slippery roads are slippery roads..Its sad to read this and i have seen many crashs over the winters while working. Sand is used spareingly as it costs much more for clean up in the spring..I didnt make the rules btw..Hot loads are sand and a salt mixed, costly but effective..Bottom line, Drive to raod conditions and if you dont really need to drive somewhere, stay off the roads . be safe everyone.
““All four were killed instantly,” said McCausland, who attributed the
crash to Tyler Manduca traveling too fast for road conditions.”
well let me tell you,all you under the tires with calicum is ICE, and it does not matter my nephew was killed instanlly too and he was driven no more then 25 miles per hour and the truck he hit was too.ita more convient for the state the salt and sand,in canada they use only sand no salt.
oh so that makes it better because McCausland said so,dont avoid the fact the state is cutting conners
Everyone at the MDOT will tell you the same thing. They know the new garbage on the road is going to kill people but the powers that (used to) be went against it. I guess some things cost more then a human life. I was always told 1 oz of prevention is = to a pound of cure. This calcium chloride is a joke and needs to go back to where it came from.
My sincere condolences to the families of all victims.
My heart goes out to all the families here. All you people blaming the state or towns for poor plowing and road conditions the storm wasnt in the forcast. Fluke snowstorms are a fact of life in ME. Im sure many plow operators have families and lives to live and dont have to wait for the phone to ring on a family holiday. Im sure the reason you dont see salt in the road is because the road was closed. Stop blaming others for every tragedy until the facts are out. Plowing is a thankless job. They are in the way when they are out, and if theres an inch of snow it is thier fault the road is bad. Drive for the conditions and many less people will be hurt and hopefully less tragedies
Such a sad story. So many lives changed forever. My heart goes out to all family and friends of these men.
my condolences to everyone involved
Why do people always have to blame others when this kind of thing occurs? It was awful on the roads. The state does what it can but some of the responsibilty falls on us too. Either stay in or drive slow & hopefully with a vehicle that can handle this kind of weather.. this is a tragedy, probably preventable, seeing that excessive speed was involved. people think they are immortal & that it could not happen to them. It can & does. My condolences, perhaps this will remind people to be patient & careful on the roads.,
Thank you for this both the bothers were great kids that went a lot to our community. This was a horrible accident and all my prayers are with the mother and the family of the other men. My daughter went on Route 3 coming home Wednesday, November 23, 2011 and it was not plowed at 3 in the afternoon I called DOT and they stated they didn’t have the funding needed to not ro plow twice but only once during these storms. I know where this happened and it was not speed it was snow conditiions and the weather, we have incurred more slush and icing that snow. Please remind all young drivers to be more cautious because the roads are crappy and the State can’t provide the appropriate care of these roads.