One was an 83-year-old, award-winning scholar and scientist installing a sprinkler for his condo association. The other was a 54-year-old mother spending the evening gardening in her yard.

Both died Wednesday after similar accidents -- separated by less than two hours -- in which vehicles suddenly careened off the roads.

Cyrus McKell, of Holladay, had dug a hole and was preparing to place a sprinkler at the entrance to a complex at 4000 South and 2300 East. A northbound car crossed to the wrong side of the 2300 East, jumped a curb and continued along a sidewalk into McKell.

Salt Lake County sheriff's investigators said the 86-year-old driver likely suffered from a medical condition and blacked out. He was "somewhat incoherent" when he spoke to police, said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Don Hutson. Hutson did not release the name of the driver, but The Salt Lake Tribune has confirmed it was McKell's neighbor, Harold Dobson.

McKell's wife of 63 years, Betty, called Dobson "a wonderful man," but the McKell family wonders why he was allowed to continue driving at such an old age one year after he suffered a stroke. Hutson said the Sheriff's Office would investigate that issue.

McKell's son, John, said he would have rather had his dad be killed in the accident than have him be the driver, who has to live with the burden of knowing he killed his neighbor.

"I'm so glad that wasn't daddy," a choked up John McKell said.

The driver has not been cited, but the District Attorney's Office will screen the case for potential charges when the Sheriff's Office finishes its investigation.

Doug Isaac, who lived next to the McKells for more than 20 years, was one of the last people to see McKell alive. On Thursday afternoon, he was finishing McKell's work -- installing the sprinkler head to treat a dry patch of grass.

"This was just one of those one in a million things," said Isaac, tears welling in his eyes and his voice shaking as he stood over the hole McKell had dug and where his tools still rested. "It's difficult for me to come up and finish."

McKell earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Utah, his doctorate at Oregon State and later worked as a professor at Utah State University and a dean at Weber State University's College of Science.

McKell traveled across the world teaching. While on sabatical in Nairobi, Kenya, he saved a Ugandan from dictator Idi Amin, helping him to escape to the U.S., where the man eventually earned his doctorate.

McKell's daughter, Meredith, sorted through several binders full of photos and letters -- from Australia, South America, Israel, Russia, Spain and Cyprus -- and recounted traveling across the globe with her father.

"He showed me how to be a better person," a teary Meredith McKell said.

Betty McKell fondly remembered her husband as a popular hot rodder who would drive up in his Ford, slam on his brakes and send gravel and dust flying.

"My dad thought he was horrible," Betty McKell laughed.

Rather than place flowers and create a shrine at the site where Cyrus was killed, his grandson said he would want people to plant a tree as an homage to his life's passion as a botanist.

Said longtime friend and neighbor Jack Worlton: "Cy will be sorely missed."

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Arrangements of memorial flowers sat in front of the now-crushed garden in Roy that Wendy Kerbs was planting when a sports utility vehicle rolled into her yard and killed her.

"She loved flowers," said Kerbs' daughter, Stephanie Minnig. "She died doing what she loved to do."

Richard Bash, 40, was driving his SUV as fast as 60 mph to pass another car near 3100 West and 5800 South on Wednesday, police said. The SUV flipped into Kerbs' yard about 4:45 p.m. It uprooted two large pine trees and struck Kerbs.

"This is an innocent life that didn't need to go," said Kerbs' tearful neighbor, Rachelle Burrell. "It just didn't need to happen."

Kerbs was "willing to do anything for anybody," Burrell said.

Bash ran from the scene but was caught by officers. Burrell said she saw him struggle with officers who tried to put him in an ambulance and take him to the hospital, swinging at them and screaming obscenities.

Police are seeking a charge of automobile homicide, police said. Bash has an extensive history of traffic violations in the 1980s and '90s, court records indicate. Officers at the scene said Bash may have been drinking, Sgt. Michael Elliott said, and they are awaiting results of a blood test. He has been convicted of felony joyriding and misdemeanor theft, disorderly conduct, intoxication, interference with a public servant and weapons charges.

Weber County sheriff's deputies had been searching for Bash for about a day before the crash because his wife told them he had sent text messages to her threatening suicide, Elliott said. Late Tuesday, he called Weber County sheriff's deputies and said he was outside the office, said Lt. Philip Howell. When deputies went to bring him in, he was not there, Howell said. He later called deputies and said he would not submit to them because there was a warrant out for his arrest. Authorities do not know what warrants he was referring to, Howell said. Court documents do not list any open cases charging Bash.