3 people killed in unrelated crashes Monday in Vermont

Three people died Monday in two unrelated Vermont crashes, and police are continuing to investigate their respective causes.

At around 10 a.m. Monday morning, police responded to a crash on Route 4 in Mendon which left two people dead and two others with life-threatening injuries.

The two people killed, 79-year-old John Panoushek, and his passenger, 74-year-old Jean Panoushek, were in a Toyota RAV4 that crossed the center line and struck a Toyota Sienna head-on. John Panoushek was driving the SUV. Neither of them were wearing a seatbelt at the time, state police said.

The people in the other car, 73-year-old Beverly Adams and her passenger, 76-year-old Thomas Allen, were seriously injured and taken to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. An update on their conditions was not immediately available.

In a separate incident, police responded to the scene of a Colchester fatal crash involving two pick-up trucks at around 4 p.m. the same day on Clay Poin Road and Route 2.

Police said 38-year-old Christopher Pugh was driving west on Route 2 when he exited the right side of the roadway, driving across the median and hit another vehicle driven by 33-year-old Nicholas Ringuette, of Colchester.

Ringuette was stopped at the stop sign on Clay Point Road at the time of the crash and died at the scene.

Pugh was transported to UVM Medical Center in Burlington with non-life-threatening injuries.

The investigation into the cause of both crashes is ongoing.