Danger: Do not cross in Delaware

At 2 a.m., police knocked on the door of Theresa Haslam’s triplex in Delaware City to inquire if she knew Robert Spencer. Yes, she told officers, Spencer was her daughter’s boyfriend who had lived at her home.

Spencer had been hit by a vehicle while trying to cross four lanes of Basin Road (Del. 141) near New Castle, police said, and was in critical condition at a local hospital.

Then the officers asked Haslam about her relationship to 36-year-old Melissa Livingstone. It's my daughter, Haslam said.

“They said, ‘Ma’am, she’s deceased,’ ” Haslam recalled, explaining that her daughter was hit by the same car as Spencer while crossing the dark, dangerous road.

“I grabbed the door handle, and I came back into the house screaming. She's dead! She's dead!"

Livingstone, who did not have a driver's license, was a former cashier who was killed in the early morning hours of Sept. 10 while walking from a friend's home in Wilmington Manor.

The accident that took Livingstone's life helps illustrate why Delaware is America's deadliest state for pedestrians. More than three-quarters of deaths between January 2005 and December 2014 occurred at night on high-speed roadways, state Department of Transportation data shows. Roughly 2 out of 3 were in New Castle County, and in 45 percent of cases, either the driver or the pedestrian had been drinking – although neither Livingstone nor the driver that hit her were found to be under the influence of alcohol. Many of the pedestrians killed live in lower-income housing near crash scenes.

In 2012 and 2013, Delaware pedestrians were nearly twice as likely to die walking as pedestrians in any other state, according to the National Highway Transportation Administration. And the problem here is getting worse.

In 2014, vehicles struck and killed 28 Delaware pedestrians – matching record highs set in both 2006 and 2012. This year, 28 people have already lost their lives walking along or crossing Delaware roads.

Most deaths occur along thoroughfares where motorists travel at 50 mph or higher, while pedestrians are walking to work, to catch a bus, to go to a store or simply to get from one spot to another. One can witness it daily along the U.S. 13/U.S. 40 corridor – between I-495 and Del. 1 – where 29 people were struck and killed during the past decade.

"You see the bus coming, and you know that the next bus is not for 45 minutes. It looks like it should be safe; you can find a gap, but you make an error," said James Wilson, a member of Delaware's Department of Transportation pedestrian, bicycle safety working group.

The trend between poverty and pedestrian deaths is being observed nationwide, said Anne Morris, co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences Engineering and Medicine's Committee on Environmental Justice in Transportation.

Large highways regularly lack sidewalks, she said, despite poorer people being less likely to drive. And the adults who routinely run across wide highways outside of crosswalks rarely see their actions as being risky.

Last week, a New Castle man named Dee and his female friend bolted across four high-speed lanes of Pulaski Highway (U.S. 40) on a dark night. The couple took a breath at the Exxon station at the junction with Du Pont Highway (U.S. 13), then rushed across an additional four lanes of U.S. 13, the state's deadliest roadway.

The couple had left Walmart near Wilton Boulevard and wanted to catch a public bus, said Dee, who declined to give his last name.

"We had to run across,” he explained, adding that after missing public transportation, they called a friend for a ride and now had a new destination.

“We’re just trying to get to Hooters,” Dee said.

The number of people walking along New Castle County highways has increased steadily during the past 20 years as “urbanization” has crept further into rural areas, said Adam Weiser, safety programs manager at the Delaware Department of Transportation.

Factors that lead to these collisions, he said, are the width of highways and the distance between crosswalks.

“We’re looking at adding more crosswalks on [U.S.] 13,” he said.

But accidents happen even in crosswalks.

Richard Davis becomes noticeably somber when recalling that last year a car struck him near the New Castle Farmer's Market. The 21-year-old, who lives in the Glasgow Court trailer park, said he still walks to that cluster of commerce, but now pays closer attention to inattentive drivers.

He was hit while crossing U.S. 13 in a crosswalk: A car turning right onto Del. 273 failed to yield and slammed into him.

"I wasn’t paying attention to the right-turn lane and got nailed by a 2003 Cavalier," Davis said.

Walking continues to be his primary mode of travel, and Davis walks daily along U.S. 40 to his job at ShopRite in Governor's Square in Bear. That segment of highway has large stretches without sidewalks, which he said transportation planners should change.

"A lot of these people out here are driving pretty recklessly and don’t really pay attention," he said.

On a late Saturday night in early September, Dover-area resident Brenda Stone was killed while crossing U.S. 40 outside of a crosswalk near Governor's Square, on turf Davis traverses daily. Both Stone and the driver, Terry Berry of Newark, had been drinking, according to Delaware State Police.

Shayne Jackson, a resident of the Hollywood Motel near the split of U.S. 13 and U.S. 40, said she doesn’t use the signalized crosswalk along U.S. 13 because the walk light does not afford pedestrians enough time to cross the road. It’s quicker – and could be safer, she said, to wait for a clear patch of road and run.

"You stand a better chance crossing outside the crosswalks," she said. "The crosswalks here, you may hit the button, but it will only let you cross on one side [to the median].”

Two days after Haslam got the devastating news about her daughter, she held a vigil along the stretch of roadway where her daughter died. In attendance was Archie Thornton of New Castle, who had driven the car that struck Livingstone and Spencer.

“The driver, we have given our hearts to,” she said. “It’s not his fault. It was an accident.”

Livingstone was speaking on her cellphone when she was struck, Haslam said, which could have been a factor. And the spot where her daughter died was dim and shadowy, the grieving mother added.

In fact, a fire truck from Goodwill Fire Company lit the area during the memorial so that the attendees themselves wouldn’t become victims of another vehicle collision. Haslam suspects that the darkness contributed to the accident, noting that the street light, located near the entrance of William Penn High School, was still out last week.

Livingstone had four children – three daughters and one son – between 9 and 19. The two youngest daughters, 9 and 12, have had trouble sleeping through the night since the accident, Haslam said.

Grief kept Haslam from working as a bus driver for nearly two weeks after the crash. The resulting loss of income, in addition to funeral costs, has squeezed her already tight budget and added a financial stress to her mourning.

“I couldn’t go to work the week that she died – and the week afterwards," she said. "I just couldn’t make it.”

One week before Livingstone died – and only two blocks away – David Brixen, 50, of New Castle, attempted to cross Del. 141 and was struck and killed in the left-hand southbound lane. Neither Brixen nor Livingstone were using a crosswalk when they were hit, according to the Delaware State Police.

Haslam said she knows other lower-income people who have been struck by vehicles, and most walked because they didn’t have or a car. In fact, Livingstone’s death was not the first time Haslam has had to deal with this kind of loss in her family. Since the 1970s, she said, five members of her family have been killed on Delaware roads.

“One was named James Bleacher," Haslam said. "We called him 'Buzz.' He was 11 years old and was born in 1981, the same as my son. He was riding his bike [on Marrows Road, near Newark] and caught the mirror of a [passing] truck.”

Ten years ago, transportation planners didn’t focus much on safety for foot traffic, said DelDOT's Weiser, even as pedestrians were often dying on segments of roads that lacked crosswalks. DelDOT is now identifying high-risk areas and installing crosswalks and better lighting, such as along U.S. 13, between Del. 273 and Pulaski Highway (U.S. 40.)

But collisions continue there. Eight deaths occurred along that stretch between 2005 and 2014. And sidewalks didn't stop the carnage. Three people have died along the roadway since 2012.

If there were unlimited resources, DelDOT would put crosswalks on nearly every intersection, Weiser said, but the problem requires more than just infrastructure. Educating walkers and enforcing jaywalking laws are also necessary to reduce these kind of accidents, he said.

Over the short-term, “it really boils down to an education or enforcement issue,” Weiser said.

The Delaware Office of Highway Safety provides money for police officers to work overtime on dangerous sections of road and to talk with pedestrians and hand out reflective bags and flashlights.

Despite the surge in pedestrian fatalities this year, Jana Simpler, director of the state Office of Highway Safety, could not say whether the program would be expanded. From 2013 until September, the office provided nearly $100,000 to 10 police departments in New Castle County and those near the Delaware beaches.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jack Markell issued an executive order that established a council on “walkability and pedestrian awareness” that will create “pedestrian safety education” plans and will advise DelDOT Secretary Jennifer Cohan about where to build new sidewalks.

In the order, Markell said that there’s a lack of legal understanding on the part of drivers and walkers about how to follow “the rules of the road.”

Regular on-duty officers often don’t have time to stop pedestrians crossing highways outside of crosswalks, particularly if they are heading to another emergency, said Officer 1st Class Tom Jackson, spokesman for the New Castle County Police Department. The funds from the Office of Highway Safety allows the department to put a focus on pedestrian safety, particularly on the “bad” corridors, along River Road (Del. 9) and U.S. 13, he said.

“We have to prioritize the things that we do,” he said.

The Office of Highway Safety also spent $135,000 during the previous 12 months in “paid media efforts,” Simpler said, which included signs at bus stops that feature an image of a chicken with the phrase, “How did the chicken cross the road? Safely.”

Wilson argues that those education efforts do not accomplish very much. People already know that crossing six lanes of traffic is bad idea, he said, but they do it anyway.

Roads such as U.S. 13 will always be hazardous for pedestrians, Wilson said, but small improvements could be made adding signalized crosswalks and better lighting.

DelDOT’s pedestrian and bicycle safety working group will examine conditions along U.S. 13, Wilson said, during the upcoming month. In January, that group published a similar report about safety along Kirkwood Highway where it recommended, among other things, more crosswalks.

Between 2005 and 2014, eight people died while walking along that corridor that connects Wilmington and Newark.

The Federal Highway Administration also directs extra money to cities and states to develop pedestrian safety plans and to pay for technical courses for state officials. But Delaware is not part of that program – despite having the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities. That is because the program funnels money to the states with cities that have high numbers of pedestrian deaths, and most of the deaths in Delaware occur in the unincorporated areas.

Another issue facing Delaware is that it's a small state, and the federal government doles out funds based partially on the total number of deaths. Although the First State has been the worst in the nation for pedestrian deaths on a per-capita basis, it doesn't qualify for additional federal funding "because Delaware is on the bottom half of the list by [total] numbers."

On a Wednesday afternoon in early October, Josh Potts decided he had waited long enough on Del. 273 near New Castle for the bus to arrive, so he decided to walk to his home in Wilmington.

“I got tired of waiting for the bus up there, so I decided to make up some ground,” he said.

After turning north onto U.S. 13, he realized it would be best to walk along the east side of the highway to be ready to catch a bus if it happened to pass. To do that, though, he had to cross the six lanes of afternoon traffic.

“You can’t be walking slow. When you got to get across, you got to get across,” he said.

Lone pedestrians walking along Delaware’s highways now worry Haslam. She wants to offer advice, as she would have done to her daughter had she been with her the night she died.

“Take your earphones out of your ears and pay attention, put your cellphones down,” she said. “Stay in a well-lighted area.”

But for transportation planners, Haslam has other requests. She wants to see more crosswalks and more lights – especially near schools. But after pondering it further, she wonders whether even that may not be enough along fast, wide highways.

“That's ideal," she added, "but is a drunk driver going to notice that?”

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.