Guilford County mother remembers child hit, killed on Halloween; ‘Children should not fear for their lives’

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — It’s almost time for your kids to walk through neighborhoods collecting candy.

Some of the older trick-or-treaters will be out on their own. Ayonna Suttles is using her 2022 Halloween story to protect other children.

It’s the night she lost her daughter: 14-year-old Alyiah Thornhill.

Suttles describes her as her entire world.

“She was more than a triple threat to me. She was academically gifted. She was a singer, an actress, a dancer, a philanthropist. Now that I’m looking back on it, she was gifted. She was a gifted child,” Suttles said.

While trick or treating, Aliyah and her best friend were hit by an SUV along Haw River Road in Oak Ridge.

Troopers say the girls were walking with their backs to traffic.

Aliyah passed away, leaving an irreplaceable hole in Suttle’s life.

“It was a rough night. I was in Durham. She was in Greensboro. I had no way to get to my baby,” Suttles said.

The accident is not far from the spot where 11-year-old Noah Chambers was hit while crossing the same road on Halloween in 2019. It’s another tragedy neighbors like Hunter Burchett won’t forget.

“The sirens … were coming from everywhere. We were actually out the night that one happened … We saw both of them,” Burchett said.

Following Aliyah’s passing, town leaders added a permanent digital radar sign along Haw River Road.

Though speed was not a factor in the crash that took Alyiah’s life, Burchett says this sign has actually helped.

“The speeding has tremendously come down,” Burchett said.

Suttles says she’s working to launch a nonprofit called Alyiah’s Attic to assist underprivileged teenage girls with new and gently used clothing in honor of her daughter’s memory.

In the meantime, she’s urging parents to take the proper precautions to make sure their children are safe this Halloween.

“Make sure they have some kind of reflective item on them … so they can notify the vehicles if they do have to cross the street … My third piece of advice for the drivers is to slow down. Slow down. Pay attention. Put your cell phone down for two hours at the most. That phone call can wait. That text can wait. This is a children’s holiday. Children should not fear for their lives when they are going out trick or treating,” Suttles said.

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