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Tourists die crossing road in Tombstone

By Mark Stine - email

TOMBSTONE, AZ (KOLD) - People in a historic Wild West town are mourning the death of a British couple struck and killed while walking on a state highway.

"It's a bit of sadness hanging over Tombstone at the moment," Johnny Martin said.

Tombstone was the place Arthur and Winifred Wilkinson, better known to their friends as Mick and Sylvia, came to get away.

Martin remembered, "They used to walk up and down all dressed, holding hands."

Even though they were from Great Britain, many considered the couple part of their historic town.

"The community absorbs them. It takes them to the heart and you couldn't help it with them," Martin told KOLD.

Monday night, Rusty, who sings at Big Nose Kate's Saloon, spoke with Mick and Sylvia as they headed home for the evening.

"They were just happy to be here and just having a good time. They were going to eat some dinner and go to the house and call it a day," Rusty said.

But they never made it home. As the couple was crossing Highway 80, the main road through Tombstone, the marshall says the driver of a pick-up truck apparently didn't see the couple and hit and killed them.  The investigation continues, and the driver is not facing charges.

Tuesday, members of the community placed flowers at the intersection to remember their friends.

Marshall Larry Talvy said, "An event like this is very devastating, when you have tourists that get hurt in your town, it has a big effect on safety concerns we have for other tourists."

At the forefront of those concerns is the intersection where Mick and Sylvia were hit. It doesn't have a crosswalk and with only one street light on the one side of the road, it's pretty dark at night.

In the last 10 years, the Marshall says, five people crossing in the same area have been killed.

"When you lose one life, that's one too many, which could have maybe been prevented by having a light, a well lit area or a crosswalk," Talvy explained.

Talvy says Tombstone's been trying for years to get a crosswalk to keep their tourists safe.

"We have over 700,000 tourists a year and that's a lot of people you're risking their lives because we can't get a crosswalk," Talvy told KOLD.

The Arizona Department of Transportation says it was asked two times to study the intersection, most recently in 2004, but both times the intersection did not meet the criteria to warrant a crosswalk.  ADOT says it is willing, at Tombstone's request, to come back and study it again.

And as Tombstone officials lobby for a safe place for their visitors to cross, Mick and Sylvia's friends try to remain positive as they remember one of their beloved couples.

"The one thing that came out of it, I suppose if you believe in that, is they went together, as they would have done in a place they loved more than any other place," Martin said.

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