THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503300385
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: METRO BRIEFS
DATELINE: KIPTOPEKE LENGTH: Short : 30 lines
A tractor-trailer that plunged off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was brought to the surface on Wednesday, but the body of its driver was still missing, officials said.
The accident occurred Friday. A report Saturday that the truck had been raised hours after the incident was incorrect.
The driver has not been identified.
Police said the tractor-trailer was traveling south on the bridge-tunnel's North Channel Bridge - just south of Fishermans Island - when the driver slammed on his brakes to avoid a van, which had stopped for bridge repair work.
The truck jackknifed, crashed through the concrete-and-steel railing and fell into 31 feet of water on the bridge's west side.
A spokesman for the truck's owner, Richfoods Inc. of Richmond, said the driver had left Mechanicsville early Friday to deliver foodstuffs to the Eastern Shore. The driver was returning to the Richmond area.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC MISSING BODY by CNB