Police shut down a rural stretch of Route 28 for six hours Friday, May 2, after a Derry man was killed in a single-car accident.

Police found the driver, Esau Stanley Jr., 32, of Derry, dead at the scene near the Libbey Road intersection of Rockingham Road shortly after the accident was called in around 7:30 a.m.

Police Chief Gerald Lewis said speed may have been a factor.

“It’s one of the things we’re going to look at,” Lewis said. “It’s still at the early stages where we’re collecting a lot of information.” Lewis said Stanley’s 2008 Chevrolet Corvette was found a short distance off the road on its side.

“It went off the road and into the woods where it did hit some trees and went over,” Lewis said. “We don’t believe seat belts were being used."

While the stretch of Route 28 where the accident happened has few traffic lights, Lewis wouldn’t characterize it as a road where speeding commonly occurs.

“It’s commuter traffic. They travel at roughly 45 to 50 mph,” he said.

Stanley’s wife Michelle, 32, a passenger in the car, received minor injuries from the crash.

The road was closed off to through traffic through 2:30 p.m. on May 2 as police investigated the scene with help from Derry Police Department’s accident reconstruction team.

Police are seeking information from anyone who might have seen the crash.

Anyone with information can call Windham officer Bryan Smith at 434-5577.