PERU — Drivers of two vehicles that collided head-on early Monday on Route 108 near Valley Road were killed instantly, Maine State Trooper Jason Wing said.
Killed were  48-year-old  Carl Grant, who was driving a 1998 Jeep Cherokee west on Route 108 toward Rumford and 31-year-old Christine Sterry, who was driving a 1997 Ford Windstar minivan east, Wing said. Both Sterry and Grant were Peru residents, according to State Police press released issued Monday afternoon.
Sterry was the mother of three young children who attend SAD 21 schools including the nearby Peru Elementary School, according to the School Superintendent Tom Ward.
Ward said the district’s crisis team had been activated to work with students and staff in the wake of the tradgedy. A district bus driver was among those who reported the accident. The bus driver was driving a busload of children toward the school and came upon the accident scene, Ward said.
Both demolished vehicles were each loaded onto two M/T Pockets tow trucks from Dixfield.
The accident happened at about 7:38 a.m. in a straightaway beyond a slight curve and just east of Valley Road.
“The van crossed the centerline and the impact was directly head-on. We have no idea at this time why the van crossed the centerline … Neither driver was seat-belted and both remained in their vehicles,” Wing said.
The speed limit in the area is 55 mph. Wing said he didn’t yet know how fast either driver was traveling or if alcohol was involved.
Route 108 was immediately shut down for more than five hours while the accident was reconstructed by Trooper Kyle Tilsley and debris was removed.
Canton firefighters rerouted traffic onto Route 140 in Canton to Canton Point Road and up to Route 2, while Peru firefighters rerouted traffic onto Route 2 at the four-corners intersection just south of the Mexico bridge over the Androscoggin River.
Med-Care Ambulance and Peru firefighters remained on scene for the duration and were joined at times by Rumford and Mexico firefighters, who helped clean up the debris.
Due to freezing temperatures, a Peru town garage crew was called to the scene after both vehicles were removed to apply sand to the crash site. They were joined by a Maine Department of Transportation truck which then salted the road before it reopened at 12:45 p.m.
Other responders included Dixfield police Sgt. Jeffrey Howe; Oxford County Sheriff’s Sgt. Timothy Holland and Chief Deputy Darrell “Dane” Tripp; Maine State Police Lt. Walter Grzyb, Sgt. Don Shedd, mapper Trooper Angela Porter and Trooper Corey Huckins.

Staff Writer Eileen Adams contributed to this report.

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