The Sanford community is shocked and questioning how a man and his grandson could be hit and killed by a vehicle while working in a yard.
“It’s pretty upsetting,” said Delina Ryan, who has lived on Old Falls Road for nearly 40 years and said she has seen many changes in the neighborhood including cars driving faster.
“Traffic has been terrible up and down this road since this development,” she said, “and then down further they fly up and down here.”
“We used to have our grandchildren here every day, and we had to put up rope across to make sure the grandchildren didn’t go out into the road, because they don’t stop for anything,” Ryan said.
Police say the crash happened when an SUV veered off Old Falls Road around 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
The SUV went into a yard at the corner of Old Falls Road and Kennebunk Road and hit 65-year-old Michael Gilbar of Jericho, Vermont, and his 15-year-old grandson, Joseph Perry, who were handling firewood at a family summer home.
Perry, who was identified by the school district, was pronounced dead at the scene. Gilbar was taken to Sanford Regional Airport by ambulance but died before LifeFlight transport.
The driver, who police have not identified or yet charged with a crime, was taken to Southern Maine Health Care with injuries not considered life-threatening.
The investigation, including crash reconstruction analysis that could determine how fast the driver was going, is in its early stages, and police say it could take weeks to gather and process possible evidence. They do not believe the driver was related or connected to the two victims.
Family members declined to talk on camera but said the 15-year-old Perry was visiting for the week.
Neighbor Laura Morris said she met Gilbar once: “He has a lovely wife. Unfortunately, this terrible accident is just horrible.”
“I just feel bad for the family,” she said. “It’s just more like a nice little, small, quiet community, but something like this, so big, so tragic, is terrible.”