MILFORD – Grief counselors are being made available at Hampden Academy today after the death of a 15-year-old Hampden student who was killed early Sunday morning in a car accident.

Counselors will be on hand to help students and staff deal with the death of Robert Kyle Perkins, said SAD 22 Assistant Superintendent Emil Genest on Monday. The counseling may be extended depending on the need, he said. Also on Tuesday, each class that Perkins attended will include time for the students to reflect on their classmate, he said.

Perkins was killed when the car he was a passenger in went off the County Road in Milford and struck a rock and several trees and then rolled onto its roof, an investigator said. The car was demolished, and Perkins was pronounced dead at the scene, said Penobscot County Sheriff’s Deputy Doug Smith, who was the first to arrive at the early morning accident.

Rescuers used extricating equipment to remove Perkins’ cousin Thomas Neill, 19, the car’s driver, Smith said. Neill suffered relatively minor injuries and was taken by a Penobscot County Sheriff’s deputy to Eastern Maine Medical Center where he was treated for lacerations on a hand, Smith said. Neill was released from the hospital later that day.

The accident is still under investigation and Smith said authorities are looking into whether speed, driver inexperience or alcohol were involved. Accident reconstructionists from the Maine State Police and the Bangor Police Department are assisting in the investigation.

“We’re still very early in the investigative stages,” Smith said.

As part of standard procedures in a fatal accident investigation, a blood sample from Neill was taken, Smith said. Asked whether alcohol was involved in the accident, Smith said: “It hasn’t been eliminated, but it hasn’t been confirmed either.”

A motorist passing by the accident shortly after 1 a.m. used a cellular phone to call the Penobscot Regional Communications Center. Smith arrived first but said nothing could be done to save Perkins.

The accident occurred on the County Road about two miles from the town’s landfill and about five miles from Route 2, Smith said. That section of the road was blocked off for several hours after the accident to allow authorities to work on the investigation, Smith said.

A funeral service for Perkins is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28 at the St. Matthews Catholic Church on Western Avenue in Hampden. In light of Friday’s funeral service, Hampden Academy’s Class B football playoff game against Leavitt at Turner has been postponed from Friday to Saturday at 7 p.m.