May 16--Officials suspended search efforts Thursday night to recover the body of the driver of a tractor-trailer that jack-knifed and drove into the water off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in a morning accident, a spokesman said.
Portsmouth-based Crofton Diving was called to the scene at about 6:30 p.m. to extract the driver from the wreckage of the truck, as well as assess what equipment would be needed to get it out of the water but halted their efforts at dark, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel spokesman Tom Anderson said Thursday evening.
Any attempt to remove the tractor-trailer itself would likely wait until Saturday, as rain is predicted for the area Friday, Anderson said.
The U.S. Coast Guard reported that rescue teams from Virginia Beach and local agencies responded to a report at about 10 a.m. that a tractor-trailer traveling northbound drove off the bridge near mile marker 15.
One northbound lane on the approach to the high rise section of the North Channel Bridge was closed so crews could seal cracks and do other maintenance. Anderson said crews had signs and caution lights noting the closure.
"Evidently the driver did not see them and swerved at the last second," Anderson said. "He struck the back end of one of our maintenance trucks ... and jack-knifed and went off the west side of the northbound span."
Officials have not been able to make a positive identification of the tractor-trailer driver yet, Anderson said.
The driver of the bridge-tunnel maintenance truck was not injured, Anderson said.
Virginia Beach officials acted as the primary responders to the incident, but crew members with the Navy Special Warfare Command were the ones who made contact with the tractor-trailer, said Amy Valdez, a battalion chief with the city's fire department. About an hour after the incident, officials reclassified their efforts from a rescue into a recovery, and Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel police eventually took over as the lead agency on the efforts, she said.
Coast Guard officials said a 45-foot Response Boat was dispatched from Coast Guard Station Little Creek. Coast Guard Cutter Beluga, an 87-foot patrol boat, also was sent to the scene to assist. A Navy SH-60 Seahawk helicopter conducting training operations nearby was sent to the crash site.
Anderson said the crash closed all northbound lanes for about 45 minutes. One northbound lane remained closed Thursday evening as crews worked to fix a section of damaged guard rail and concrete light poles, requiring repairs that could last into Saturday, Anderson said.
Copyright 2014 - Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
