LAKE STEVENS — Kyle Sanders wore a heartwarming smile on his face, even when he wasn’t feeling his best.
And if he came across someone who was down — whether a barista, a friend or a family member — he wouldn’t leave until they too were smiling.
That’s how his wife, Renee Sanders, and other people Wednesday remembered the 30-year-old Lake Stevens man who died in a head-on vehicle crash on 84th Street NE Saturday afternoon.
“He was happy-go-lucky,” said Renee Sanders, a kindergarten teacher at Peaceful Glen Christian School in Snohomish.
More than 70 people huddled under blankets and thick jackets Wednesday evening for a roadside candlelight vigil at the site of Saturday’s crash.
“He was the nicest guy that I ever met,” said Tim Lussier, a co-worker at an Everett siding business, who also played basketball with Sanders when the two were Everett middle school students. “He was real happy about life everyday. It didn’t matter if you knew him for 20 years or 20 minutes, you knew he was happy.”
He was also good with children, said Betsey Hill, an administrator at the school where his wife teaches. He would sometimes come to his wife’s classroom, where students knew him as “Mr. Kyle.”
“He loved kids, and he was a big kid himself,” Hill said. “He was gentle and kind and very accepting of others.”
Family members, co-workers, friends and people who didn’t even know Sanders carried flowers to a wooden cross that his co-workers at Exterior Finishes built and set up near the shoulder of the road.
They cried and laughed, sharing memories of the man who liked to ride dirt bikes at Reiter Pit, play guitar and root for NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Jason Kestle, a firefighter and emergency medical technician with Snohomish County Fire District 22 Getchell — one of the emergency workers who responded to the wreck — said the area is known for accidents because it is a high-speed road with many hidden driveways. The posted speed limit is 50 mph. Kestle was at the memorial Wednesday to keep those who had gathered safe from the busy traffic there.
“It’s nice to come out and see everyone in his life,” Kestle said.
Saturday at about noon, Sanders, crossed the center line while eastbound in his Ford F-150 work truck in the 11100 block of 84th Street NE, striking a gravel truck in the westbound lane.
The force of the accident sparked a fire and turned the gravel truck on its side. The driver, who apparently escaped major injuries, had to crawl out of the passenger door.
That driver, Tom Sargent, brought his family to the vigil Wednesday to offer condolences and to hear about the kind of man Sanders was.
Sargent said the accident happened in a “split-second flash” and was over.
“There was nothing I could do,” he said. “I’m here to support the family and help in the healing process.”
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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