VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — LATEST UPDATES IN NEW STORY HERE: Driver in tractor-trailer crash off Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel identified as Henrico man
A tractor-trailer drove off the side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and into the water below Thursday afternoon, bridge officials confirmed. Rescue crews are searching for one person, and all lanes of traffic have reopened.
The crash happened just before 2 p.m. at the one-mile point. Officials say the truck went into the water on the west side of the northbound span, between Virginia Beach and the southernmost island.
CBBT officials closed all lanes of traffic for more than five hours while maintenance crews made emergency repairs to the damaged guardrail and curb.
CBBT police were quickly joined in their response by search an rescue crews with multiple agencies, including Virginia Beach police and fire departments, Virginia Marine Resource Commission and the US Coast Guard.
At one point Thursday, Virginia Beach police received information that someone jumped into the water to attempt to rescue the driver but that has been confirmed as incorrect.
The Coast Guard released an update Thursday night, saying crews were searching for one person by air and sea.
“This is a concentrated joint search effort consisting of multiple rescue crews, search aircraft, and boats,” said Chief Warrant Officer Dan Butierries, Coast Guard Sector Virginia search and rescue mission coordinator.
“We are committed to searching by land and sea throughout the night and into the morning,” he said.
The circumstances of the crash are still being investigated. The process of recovering the tractor-trailer from the Chesapeake Bay is expected to start on Friday.
Kainan Weaver’s relaxing family trip to Chic’s Beach Thursday afternoon quickly took a turn, when the truck went over the guardrails. He said the crash sounded like two cars slamming into each other at a high speed.
"We heard a loud crash, and as we were coming up to walk over, my sister actually first noticed that a tractor-trailer had gone over the bridge and was floating," he said. "It started sinking down on the right side of the bridge."
About an hour and a half after the truck went into the water, small trees began to wash up on the beach, seemingly from the truck. James Thompson decided to go out and get them.
"It looked like some algae or something out there, we saw a plant washed up and I figured they were probably from the tractor-trailer," he said.
He said he wants to give them new life.
"We can get some fresh water on them, we can have some new life for the plants, maybe name them after the driver."
Tractor-trailer goes off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel
Weaver said he and his family are hoping for the best for the driver.
"I hope he did make it out somewhere," he said. "They’ve been looking for a long time."
This is at least the sixth time in recent years that a large truck has crashed over the side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Most recently in December 2020, a box truck went into the water off the east side of the northbound span of the CBBT, between the North Channel Bridge and the northernmost island. The driver was a Maryland man, whose body was found a few months later on a Cape Hatteras beach.
In 2018, two people from Delaware died when a minivan hit a tractor-trailer, sending the big rig over the edge and into the bay.
A year earlier in 2017, a North Carolina man died when his tractor-trailer went over the edge of the bridge. Officials said there were some wind restrictions on the bridge-tunnel at the time.
In 2016, police said a tractor-trailer went through the guard rail and into the water when the driver tried passing another vehicle. That driver survived.
And in 2014, a Chesapeake man died when his tractor-trailer hit a construction vehicle on the CBBT, jack-knifed, and fell into the water.