
DATE: Monday, September 1, 1997             TAG: 9709010086

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  107 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: * The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel handles one lane of traffic in each direction, not two, as stated in a story Monday about an accident at the bridge-tunnel. Correction published in The Virginian-Pilot, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 1997, page A2. * 5 DIE IN ONE OF WORST CRASHES EVER ON BRIDGE-TUNNEL THE BODIES OF THE 3 WOMEN AND 2 GIRLS WERE RECOVERED FROM THE WATER SUNDAY.

Five people died late Saturday in what police believe to be the deadliest accident ever on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Police said the bodies of three women and two girls were recovered from the dark waters early Sunday as investigators pieced together details of the wreck.

Although some tractor-trailer trucks have slid off the spans, this accident marked the first time a car has gone off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel since the complex opened in 1964, said a spokeswoman for the Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Divers pulled one woman and an infant from the wrecked Hyundai after it was found just before midnight Saturday in about 15 feet of water. The other bodies were recovered after a crane lifted the car several hours later.

The dead were identified as Gloria Doswell and Wanda White, both of Hampton, and Charlotte Thomas of Irvington, N.J. Their ages and street addresses were not released. The names of the two girls were withheld.

They had been traveling to Hampton from New Jersey, police said.

The accident occurred just south of Cape Charles, 13 1/2 miles from the Virginia Beach side of the 17.6-mile span that connects the Eastern Shore to Hampton Roads.

Lorraine Smith, the bridge-tunnel spokeswoman, gave this scenario of the accident:

About 9:06 p.m., a 1993 Hyundai heading toward Hampton Roads pulled out to pass another southbound car.

Apparently noticing approaching traffic, the Hyundai driver decided she did not have enough time to pass. ``She tried to pull back into the right lane, but she clipped another southbound car,'' a 1992 Mercury Grand Marquis. ``Their bumpers hit, and she lost control.''

The Hyundai veered back into the northbound lane where it first struck a guardrail and then sideswiped a northbound 1997 Pontiac Grand Am. The impact sent the Hyundai airborne. ``It didn't even touch the railing'' as it sailed into the Bay below, Smith said.

There was no evidence that speed or weather were factors.

No one was hurt in the southbound Mercury, driven by Donald Atfelfinger of Suffolk.

The driver of the northbound Pontiac, Manuel Antonio Correia Teixeria of Lisbon, Portugal, and a passenger with him suffered minor injuries and were treated at Sentara Bayside Hospital in Virginia Beach and released.

A large rescue effort was mounted in the hours after the accident.

The Coast Guard sent a helicopter from its Elizabeth City, N.C., air station to help a Virginia Beach police helicopter search the water with high-intensity lights.

Two 41-foot Coast Guard boats, one from Little Creek and the other from Cape Charles, also went to search.

Virginia Beach Emergency Medical Service divers were brought to the scene aboard the boat from Little Creek. They found the car at 11:53 p.m., not far from where it had gone into the water.

About 4 a.m., a crane from the E.T. Gresham Co. in Norfolk was brought onto the span and used to lift the badly damaged car out of the water. It was placed on the back of a flatbed truck and covered with a tarp.

The truck took the car to the Chesapeake Beach fire station, where the remaining bodies were removed.

All the bodies were taken to Virginia Beach General Hospital, where a representative of the state medical examiner's office was to examine them.

More than 2.7 million vehicles used the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in 1996. The span handles two lanes of traffic in each direction.

However, because of increased use and also in response to safety issues, the complex is being expanded with a matching set of bridges. Traffic will continue to merge at the existing tunnels, however. ILLUSTRATION: VP MAP

OTHER FATALITIES

There have been many accidents on the bridge-tunnel over the years.

Among some of the more recent involving fatalities:

June 24 - A 46-year-old Virginia Beach woman was killed when her car

veered into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a

tractor-trailer while trying to elude a police officer.

Sept. 2, 1995 - Two people were killed in a head-on collision that

brought traffic to a halt at the start of the Labor Day weekend. The

driver of a southbound car veered into the northbound lane and

slammed head-on into another car. Both drivers were killed.

June 5, 1994 - One man died and two others, including an infant,

were trapped in their vehicle with critical injuries after a head-on