CHESAPEAKE, Va. – Louis Valentino Scott, Sr. is still deeply in love with his wife, Deborah.
“I will always love her,” he shared with me during our conversation about their love story that spanned more than 30 years. “I’ve never felt a love as deep as the love I had for my wife. Never.”
Scott and his wife met in their hometown in Georgia. His career in the Navy brought them to Hampton Roads, where their family would grow. Just as they were preparing for the retirement chapter of their love story, a horrific crash during a family road trip through South Carolina changed their lives forever.
“We [weren’t] on the road five minutes and this semi-truck crossed the median into oncoming traffic,” Scott old me. “That was it. That’s all I remember.”
On Nov. 9, 2019— a bright and sunny day—Scott was driving with his wife and son southbound on I-95 in Florence, S.C. They were all safely secured in their seat belts. According to investigative records I requested from the South Carolina Highway Patrol, the driver of a semi-truck heading northbound on I-95 crashed through the guardrails and collided head-on into oncoming traffic. The impact sent one car over a bridge, killing two people from Richland, Va. The crash also crushed the car carrying the Scott family from Chesapeake, instantly killing Deborah and seriously injuring Louis Scott and their son.
As the widower recalled during our conversation, “I was pinned down.”
He continued, “I was yelling and screaming for my son and my wife. It was like being in a sci-fi movie where everything is just slowed down and in you’re in a fog.”
Scott told me he heard his son breathe, but as rescue crews were sorting through the debris, he realized his wife was dead.
“As they were pulling me out, that’s when I saw her,” he said as his eyes welled with tears. “Even though I know there was nothing I could do, tell [that] to the heart, because as a husband, I’m supposed to protect my wife.”
Scott told me what’s even harder to understand is what he calls a lack of accountability for the crash that killed his wife and the two other Virginians in a separate vehicle.
According to records from the South Carolina Highway Patrol, the driver of the semi-truck that caused the crash received a ticket and fine for the crash. There is no indication from the investigative records that the driver—who survived the crash— was impaired or under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash. According to an interview with the driver, he said he had no recollection of the crash.
“There needs to be some accountability for what happened,” Scott said. “Three people lost their lives. Families have been impacted by this.”
Scott continued, “I never thought at this season, this stage of my life, I would be widowed and a single parent to a special needs child.”
Scott said while he considers legal remedies for accountability, he has been focusing his efforts on creating a scholarship fund in his wife’s honor.
“I’ll never get over losing my wife, ever. All I can do now is to try to keep her memory alive with this scholarship,” he said.
Scott said his wife volunteered with Special Olympics Virginia, and often created gift baskets for young mothers. He said a scholarship for high school students preparing to attend college will help keep her legacy alive.
“As long as I’m here, I just want to do good, and I just want to help as many people as I can help. Just like I know she would,” he said.
You can learn more about Scott’s efforts to create a scholarship in his wife’s honor here.
