A 19-year-old Millsboro man and a 23-year-old woman from Honduras were killed Friday afternoon when the Toyota Camry they were riding in crossed into oncoming traffic on Seashore Highway near Oak Road in Bridgeville and slammed head-on into a dump truck, which then caught fire. Both were students at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Maryland, a small campus that had only just opened its fall semester a few weeks earlier.
According to Delaware State Police, the crash happened around 12:40 p.m. as the Camry traveled east on Seashore Highway before entering the westbound lane for reasons that remain under investigation. The car collided with the front of a Peterbilt dump truck approaching from the opposite direction. Driver Blem Lopez-Lopez, 19, was pronounced dead at the scene, while passenger Andrea Reyes Castellanos, 23, was taken to a hospital, where she later died, WJLA reports.
The dump truck driver, a 58-year-old man from Ridgely, Maryland, was hospitalized with injuries not considered life-threatening, per the same account. A second Peterbilt hauling a loaded car trailer was also on the road at the time; its driver avoided the collision by steering into a ditch and was not injured, the outlet notes.
Highway Shut Down for Hours as Crews Cleared the Scene
Seashore Highway, also known as Route 404, was completely closed for about five hours between Oak Road and Chaplains Chapel Road while emergency crews cleared debris and reconstructed the scene, according to WGMD. The route functions as a main east-west artery across Sussex County, carrying both local traffic and regional traffic bound for the beaches.
The Delaware State Police Troop 7 Collision Reconstruction Unit continues to investigate the crash, and investigators are seeking video or information from anyone who witnessed the collision. Master Cpl. K. Argo is asking anyone with dashcam footage or leads to call (302) 703-3264, send a private message to Delaware State Police on Facebook, or report anonymously through Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) 847-3333, according to a statement from Delaware State Police.
A Campus Mourns Just Weeks Into the Semester
Washington Adventist University confirmed that two members of its student community died in the crash, saying the loss of the young lives is deeply felt across its university community. The private Seventh-day Adventist school, founded in 1904 as Washington Training College, enrolls about 1,000 students, meaning the deaths land hard on a tight-knit campus. The university had formally launched its 2026–2027 academic year on August 24 following its annual Vision 2030 Colloquium and Prayer of Consecration, just weeks before the fatal crash.
The university said it is providing counseling, pastoral care and other support services to students and staff, and it plans to release information about opportunities for the campus community to gather in remembrance and prayer. Families and witnesses affected by the crash can also reach the Delaware State Police Victim Services Unit, which offers 24-hour crisis support and counseling resources through a toll-free helpline at 1-800-VICTIM-1 (1-800-842-8461).
A Stretch of Highway With a History of Severe Crashes
This is not the first serious collision along this corridor. Delaware State Police investigated a single-vehicle fatal crash just east of Oak Road on Seashore Highway in September 2020 that killed a 34-year-old Milford man. In October 2019, five occupants of a passenger car were hospitalized near the same intersection after being struck by a heavy pickup truck during an attempted U-turn, according to Shore News Beacon.
A Delaware Department of Transportation development review from November 2023 recommended building a dedicated right-turn lane on the southbound approach of Oak Road at Seashore Highway to improve traffic handling in Bridgeville. Transportation agencies in Maryland and Delaware have also been pursuing broader safety and dualization projects along unseparated two-lane stretches of Route 404, which serves as a key freight and beach-traffic corridor across the Delmarva Peninsula.
The crash also lands amid a troubling year for road deaths statewide. Traffic fatalities in Delaware had climbed to 38 year-to-date by July, with Sussex County accounting for 12 of those deaths — nearly a third of the state total — as officials work toward a goal under the draft 2026–2030 Strategic Highway Safety Plan to cut roadway deaths by 15%, according to WBOC.
