FOSTER — Matthew A. Angell, a 22-year-old resident who died during the weekend in a single-car accident, will help seven men and women live fuller lives long after he is laid to rest today.

Angell’s organs were donated to the New England Organ Bank after his death Saturday, according to his mother, Kim A. Angell. The Ponaganset High School graduate and carpenter died less than 24 hours after he was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, on life support and with severe brain damage.

“We didn’t even think twice about donating his organs because he was healthy and they could help quite a few people,” she said yesterday.

Angell, of 4A Paris Olney Hopkins Rd., was driving his 1995 Pontiac Grand Am north on Mount Hygeia Road, or Route 94, early Saturday morning on what the police said was a clear night. There were no other cars on the road at the time, the police said.

About a quarter-mile north of the intersection of Route 94 and East Killingly Road, Angell apparently lost control of his vehicle on a curve. The car crossed the center line, left the roadway, and fell down an embankment, striking “several” trees before coming to a stop, according to Police Chief Robert Coyne.

A passerby reported the accident at 12:15 a.m. Angell was found unconscious in the driver’s seat and was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital, where he died of complications stemming from the accident at 7 p.m., his mother said. She didn’t think Angell was wearing a seat belt at the time, she said.

Toxicology reports from the state medical examiner’s office are still pending, Coyne said, but the police think speed was a factor.

Justin Guarino, 20, of Old Snake Hill Road in Glocester, was a passenger in Angell’s car, but he left the scene of the accident before the police arrived, Coyne said.

“He freaked out. His words,” Coyne said. On Sunday, the police spoke with Guarino, who was not visibly injured from the crash.

The oldest of three children born to Allen W. and Kim A. Angell, Matthew took to his father’s love for classic cars and dreamed of building a garage in the backyard where the two could work on their cars on the weekends, his mother said.

Angell kept six cars in various stages of restoration in the yard, said his mother, including a 1979 Camaro that he bought when he was 15.

Living at home and working on house-remodeling projects across the state, Angell wanted to follow his father into the auto-body repair business.

Kim Angell said she and her son still wished each other “good night” and “sweet dreams” before bed. “He was a very loving person. Not many 22-year-olds would say that to their mother,” she said.

According to her, Angell’s heart was given to a 46-year-old man, his liver to a 60-year-old man, one lung to a 50-year-old man, his left kidney to a 37-year-old man, and his pancreas to a 54-year-old woman who had been waiting for an organ donation for more than 1 1/2 years.

Kim Angell said the five recipients were Rhode Islanders, but that she did not know where the remaining two organs were sent.

A funeral service for Angell will be held today at 10 a.m. at Tucker Quinn Funeral Chapel, at 643 Putnam Ave., Greenville. Angell is to be buried in Phillips Memorial Cemetery, in Foster.

pmarcelo@projo.com