Historic wreck on Bay Bridge

More than 30 hours after a tractor-trailer careened off the Bay Bridge - killing the truck driver and wreaking havoc on thousands of travelers - state crews continued to work on the damaged portion of the eastbound span.

One lane of the 4.3-mile bridge remained closed this morning as workers repaired a jersey wall.

"Their goal is to get the final lane open later today," said Cpl. Jonathan Green, spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police.

He stressed they do not have a timeline.

"Until it is safe, it won't be open," he said.

Cpl. Green gave a few more details this morning about yesterday's 3:55 a.m. wreck - which appeared to be the result of a partial head-on collision between the truck and a 1997 Chevrolet Camaro.

He said police were still investigating how the tractor trailer, which is owned by Mountaire Farms in Delaware, was able to breach the bridge and land upright in about 10 feet of water.

"From what I can gather, this is a first," said Cpl. Green, explaining he can find nobody who remembers a vehicle driving off the side of the bridge in the past 50 years.

"It literally took a section (of jersey wall) out," said Kent Island Volunteer Fire Chief Paul Schlotterbeck, the first fire official to respond to the wreck.

Two-way traffic was in effect on the eastbound span at the time of the wreck. Cpl. Green explained that the three-lane westbound span was closed for maintenance at the time of the wreck.

Cpl. Green said the tractor trailer was heading west when it crossed the eastbound lane and struck the jersey wall a quarter-mile from Kent Island. It busted through the wall and landed in the shallow water about 30 to 40 feet below.

Chief Schlotterbeck said the eastbound Camaro involved in the wreck showed significant front-end damage. The third vehicle, an eastbound Toyota Prius, received only minor damage and was able to be driven off the bridge.

John R. Short, a 57-year-old employee of Mountaire Farms living in Willards, Md., died in the wreck. Anne Arundel County divers recovered his body from the cab of the truck yesterday morning.

Mr. Short was a veteran truck driver with more than 30 years experience on the road. He had been with Mountaire for about a year and a half, said John Wise, the company president.

Mr. Short also was a backup dispatcher.

"We offered him a dispatcher position full-time, but he did not take it because he loved to drive," Mr. Wise recalled.

Crossing the Bay Bridge is a fact of life for Mountaire's hundreds of drivers. Mr. Short was making a delivery to Central Pennsylvania at the time of the crash.

"Our drivers go across that Bay Bridge every day or every other day," Mr. Wise said.

Mr. Short was married with two grown children and grandchildren. He loved motorcycling. Employees observed moments of silence to remember their colleague.

"It's a big loss for Mountaire," Mr. Wise said.

The driver of the Camaro, Candy Lynn Baldwin, 19, of Millington, and her passenger, Trisha Ann Michele Carrigan, 21, of Quincy, Calif., were flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Balimore. Ms. Baldwin remained at the hospital this morning.

The driver of the Prius, Seung Won Hong, 41, of Springfield, Va., and his passenger, Ho Yoo, 42, of Alexandria, Va., were not injured.

Chief Schlotterbeck said yesterday he'd never dealt with an accident scene like this one. He said he quickly realized he couldn't help the driver of the tractor trailer and focused his efforts on helping the two women in the Camaro.

"Obviously I couldn't just jump in the water," he said, explaining he had to wait for a fire boat to respond. "We were seriously hoping he had survived though."

The two women were trapped in the Camaro, forcing firefighters to cut open the vehicle while minding a 20-foot gap in the jersey wall, Chief Schlotterbeck.

It is unclear how salvage crews will pull the tractor trailer from the water. Men in bright vests worked large cranes last night and this morning from the eastbound span.

"I don't know the intricate details," said Cpl. Green. "I was led to believe the recovery would be done today."

A team from the Maryland Department of Environment is monitoring the crash scene, but they are not worried about any lasting impact to the bay.

Dawn Stoltzfus, an MDE spokesman, said they don't believe the diesel tank is punctured. She said the biggest environmental hazard appears to be the plastic packaging on the chicken contained in the trailer.

"As soon as the crabs can figure out how to get in there, they will (eat the chicken)," she said.

Two-way traffic

This was the second fatal wreck on the bridge in the past 15 months. Three people were killed and five others injured in May 2007 during a seven-vehicle crash. That wreck, which happened while two-way traffic was in effect on the three-lane, westbound span, was caused when a trailer came loose from a Lincoln Navigator.

Police said two-way traffic was not a factor in that wreck and no charges were filed against that driver.

Cpl. Green said it is too early to say whether two-way traffic contributed to yesterday's wreck - although it does appear it was a partial head on collision.

A former chief of the MdTA Police and a spokeswoman for AAA said it is inherently dangerous to run traffic in both directions on a single span of the bridge.

"Two-way traffic should only be used in emergency situations," said Gary McLhinney, who served as chief of the MdTA Police from 2003 until last year.

While the two-lane span was originally built in 1952 to handle two-way traffic, Chief McLhinney noted vehicles are now bigger, wider and heavier.

Mahlon G. "Lon" Anderson, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, added that when traffic goes in both directions, drivers have almost no room for error. He noted that about 70 percent of the fatal crashes on the Bay Bridge happen during two-way traffic.

Mr. McLhinney and Mr. Anderson said there needs to be another way for motorists to cross the Chesapeake Bay, whether it's a ferry or another bridge.

"Elected officials need to make the tough call and build a second crossing," said Mr. McLhinney.

"The reality is that yesterday's tragedy did not have to be as serious and as disruptive as it was," Mr. Anderson said. "Had the truck stayed on the bridge, we might not have had a fatality. Had there not have been two-way traffic on the bridge at the time, would there have been a crash or would it have been as severe? Had the truck stayed on the bridge, and if we had additional capacity across the bay, we would probably not have had bridge and lane closures extending over 24 hours that have left tens of thousands of motorists trapped in traffic jams extending over 13 miles and lasting 6 hours and more. These are serious and nagging issues that need to be addressed."

---