Updated at 2:04 p.m.
A Rutland man who previously served in the Vermont House was killed Tuesday afternoon when the vehicle he was driving on Route 4 in Killington collided with a Marble Valley Regional Transit District bus, according to the Killington Police Department.
Mark Candon, 71, was pronounced dead at the scene, Killington police said in a press release.
The driver of the bus, Gary Gilmore, 82, of North Clarendon, and a woman who was the sole passenger in the bus were taken to Rutland Regional Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries, police said.
Paul Dame, Vermont Republican Party chair, issued a statement Wednesday calling Candon, a longtime Republican activist, “one of the most affable and cheerful people” he had worked with.
In addition to serving two terms in the Vermont House in the 1980s and the positions he held in the state GOP over the years, Candon made an unsuccessful run as the Republican nominee in the 1998 race for the U.S. House of Representatives against now-U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
“In an age of sharp division Mark always had a calming, optimistic and cheerful disposition that will be dearly missed,” Dame said in his statement.
Candon was the driver and only person in his vehicle at the time of the crash, around 12:26 p.m. Tuesday. He was headed east on Route 4 on the east side of the Killington Pass, according to police.
Candon’s vehicle crossed the center lane into the westbound lane and collided with the bus, which was heading west, police said.
Traffic in the area of the crash was delayed for several hours before the roadway was cleared.
Killington police said the crash remains under investigation.
