Family, friends remember woman hit along East Basin Road

Children wept into the arms of family members and friends Friday, just feet away from the spot where their mother, Melissa Livingstone, was hit by a car and killed late Wednesday night near New Castle.

Spray paint still marked the spot where Livingstone, 36, was struck by a 2001 Toyota Corolla driven by Archie “Dale” Thorton as she and fellow pedestrian Robert Spencer were attempting to cross the southbound lanes of East Basin Road (Del. 141).

Spencer was also hit and injured, though he survived.

Livingstone left behind four children — three daughters and a son — said her mother, Terri Haslam, who gathered with family and friends Friday night to remember their loved one at the site of the crash.

The girls were with their grandmother when Livingstone was hit late Wednesday night along a dark stretch of Del. 141 near William Penn High School.

“She was my daughter,” Haslam said through tears, “and we bumped heads, but I miss her so much.”

Haslam fought through tears most of the night, as the family erected a white cross with Livingstone’s name on it next to the bus portal where she was hit. Flowers, balloons and messages of love adorned the cross.

But the crowd parted when Thorton, who said he’s not sure if he can ever drive his car again, arrived to meet the family. They invited him to come after connecting on Facebook after the crash.

Haslam embraced him in her arms as Thorton repeated over and over again, “I’m so, so sorry.”

The mother wiped her eyes, looking up at him before speaking.

“It’s OK,” she said. “It was an accident. It was just an accident.”

Thorton has since made it his mission to get better streetlights along the stretch of East Basin Road where few areas are lit by sources other than storefronts.

He wants it to be a way to honor the fallen mother and remember her life.

“I wish this had never happened,” he said. “But what can we do? How can we make sure this changes? We need lights.”

Livingstone was the second pedestrian killed along East Basin Road in less than a week, said Good Will Fire Chief Chris Robinson. He agrees that changes must be made to improve the pedestrian conditions and ensure no one else dies along that same stretch of road.

In responding to Wednesday night’s crash, Robinson said he had to bring in two fire trucks just to get enough light to clear the crash.

“For me, as the fire chief, it’s unacceptable,” he said. “As a parent, I can’t help but worry that the next person hit is going to be a student leaving here.”

“The days are getting shorter, the nights longer, and it’s going to be pitch black along here even earlier,” he added. “There needs to be more lights.”

Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn.