The Ford Edge was already stopped, or close to it, when the Peterbilt dump truck came barreling toward it, and in the split-second before the collision, Charlene and Albert Broccolo had no warning at all. There was no time to look up, no instinctive flinch, no final moment to understand that their quiet drive home to Bel Air was seconds away from becoming the center of a five-vehicle catastrophe that would shut down Delaware’s Coastal Highway through the entire evening rush.It was Friday, November 7, 2025, on the southbound side of U.S.
Route 1 just south of Hudson Road near Lewes. Traffic had slowed the way it often does in that stretch, the ordinary kind of bottleneck that plays out dozens of times a day. But this time, something went terribly wrong. Investigators say the 27-year-old Wilmington man driving the Peterbilt dump truck in the right lane either didn’t register the slowing traffic ahead or realized too late that he couldn’t stop a fully loaded truck in time.
The Peterbilt slammed into the rear of the Broccolos’ Ford Edge with catastrophic force, crushing the SUV forward into the next vehicle ahead and triggering a violent chain reaction. Within moments, five vehicles were crumpled across the roadway, metal folding into metal as debris scattered over the southbound lanes.First responders rushed to the scene, weaving through gridlocked traffic to reach victims trapped in the wreckage.
Charlene and Albert Broccolo, both 72, suffered fatal injuries and were pronounced dead at the scene. Other drivers and passengers were transported to nearby hospitals with varying injuries, though none life-threatening.Delaware State Police spent hours reconstructing the crash, shutting the highway down as dusk turned into darkness. The investigation continues as the community mourns a couple whose routine drive ended far too soon.
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