DATE: Wednesday, June 25, 1997              TAG: 9706250533

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NAOMI AOKI, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   43 lines

WOMAN DIES IN HEAD-ON CRASH WITH TRUCK ON BRIDGE-TUNNELCRASH STARTS A FIRE THAT BLOCKS TRAFFIC ON BOTH SIDES FOR MORE THAN 3 HOURS.

An 18-year-old woman was killed Tuesday evening when her car collided head-on with a tractor-trailer on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Officials did not release the identity of the dead woman.

The 6:15 crash started a fire that halted traffic on both sides of the crossing for more than three hours, said Lorraine Smith, the bridge-tunnel spokeswoman.

The driver of the tractor-trailer suffered minor injuries, Smith said.

The accident happened on the southern portion of the bridge between the toll plaza and the first island, Smith said.

Witnesses said they could see flames and smoke from the fire from several miles away.

Anthony Sessa, who lives in a high-rise apartment building in Ocean View in Norfolk about 10 miles from the bridge-tunnel, said he saw clouds of black smoke rising from the bridge.

Smith said the accident also caused structural damage to the roadway, but she did not know the extent of that damage. A broken guardrail and charred road surface could be seen from an aerial shot of the bridge.

Both north and southbound lanes reopened at 9:35 p.m. Tuesday, Smith said.

The two-lane, 18-mile bridge-tunnel connects Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore.

Construction is under way to build a parallel bridge, but the expansion does not include new tunnels that carry traffic beneath the main incoming and outgoing Hampton Roads shipping channels. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot

The wreckage of a car is removed from the Chesapeake Bay

Bridge-Tunnel after a collision Tuesday evening with a

tractor-trailer. A young woman was killed, and the truck driver

suffered minor injuries. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC CHESAPEAKE BAY BRIDGE TUNNEL

FATALITY HEAD-ON COLLISION

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