Aug 12, 2008 2:31 pm US/Eastern
Truckers Raise Concerns About Bridge Safety
KENT ISLAND, Md. (WJZ/AP) ―
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The tractor trailer was removed from the Chesapeake Bay Monday morning.
CBS
Truckers and AAA are raising concerns about bridge safety and driver habits.
"I heard about it last night when I was coming this way," said Charles Gauker. "I'm glad it ain't me."
Gauker is piloting an 18-wheeler down to Tennessee with a huge boat on board. He's not surprised to hear AAA saying 70% of accidents on the bridge take place when there's two-way traffic.
The driver advocacy group worries about the engineering integrity of the bridge's barrier walls, the decision to send cars in both directions on one bridge, as well as both spans inability to handle traffic volume.
Truck drivers tell
Eyewitness News the safety problem on the Bay Bridge has little to do with the bridge itself. They say it has much more to do with the drivers who use it.
"Cars stopping in front of you or somebody, anything in front of you, mainly. That's the main thing and if you have to stop, pray that you don't have to go to the right, because you will go over," Gauker said.
A state engineer said Monday that the speed and size of a tractor trailer appeared to be what led the truck to crash off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge during a dramatic weekend accident, not any failing by the bridge's protective wall.
No overall accident cause has yet been reported by authorities, but Geoffrey Kolberg, chief engineer for the Maryland Transportation Authorities, discounted any structural problems with the bridge.
He said the bridge is inspected once a year and is safe, adding it was the first time he had heard of a vehicle plunging through the bridge's barrier wall into shallow waters below.
"There is no doubt in my mind -- 100 percent certain -- that this bridge is safe," Kolberg told reporters. "The type of damage caused by this truck is an anomaly. This is not routine damage. This was a very severe accident."
Kolberg said the truck, whose driver was killed in the accident early Sunday that seriously injured two others, was traveling about 55 mph -- what he called "a high rate of speed."
The truck, carrying a load of frozen chicken, was traveling westbound when an eastbound vehicle crossed the center line in two-way traffic, causing the truck to hit the brakes, according to authorities.
The driver of the car said she fell asleep at the wheel.
The truck then brushed against the parapet on the driver's right side before crashing into the parapet on the other side of the bridge at an angle, Kolberg said. The truck then rode over the parapet and dropped 30 to 40 feet into the water.
He said the truck knocked about 8 feet of the jersey wall into the water on its way down.
"The jersey walls are not designed to handle a 55-mile-per-hour, 80,000-pound-truck impact," Kolberg said.
Truck driver John Short, 57, of Willard, was killed. Trisha Ann Michele Carrigan, 21, of Quincy, Calif., remained in serious but stable condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Candy Baldwin, 19, of Millington, was treated and released on Sunday.
While he said the bridge is safe, Kolberg added it would be better if the bridge did not need to have two-way traffic close together to maintain traffic flow.
The twin-span bridge has a total of five lanes, and two-way traffic on different spans can vary, depending on traffic volume or construction.
"In an ideal situation, we'd have a bridge with two lanes and two shoulders," Kolberg said. "We don't have that luxury here. The bottom line is the bridge was built a very long time ago when traffic was different."
AAA Mid-Atlantic, a group which has criticized two-way traffic on the bridge before, reiterated its concerns Monday.
"Yesterday's tragic truck crash raises three critical concerns with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, bridge engineering, two-way traffic and inadequate capacity," AAA said in a statement.
After the accident, workers repaired the damaged wall by installing a steel beam that stretched from the undamaged portions to where the truck crashed.
Traffic backed up Sunday, causing long delays on the key corridor to the Atlantic beaches.
Police spokesman Cpl. Jonathan Green said Monday investigators did not have video recordings of the accident. Green said investigators had spoken with some witnesses and hoped to hear from others who have seen what happened.
Green said authorities were "looking at everything, keeping the possibility of driver fatigue in mind.
"We're talking about 4 a.m. on a Saturday night, so you know there's a potential that that's involved," Green said.
The tractor-trailer fell into about 10 feet of water and landed upright, with its top visible.
Last year, three people were killed and five were injured on the bridge when a trailer came unhitched, causing a multi-vehicle accident. That accident also happened in two-way traffic.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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