The search for a truck driver whose tractor-trailer went over the side of the bridge at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in Virginia has come to a sad conclusion. Salvage crews found the driver’s body in the cab of his truck around 9:30 a.m. Friday.
The medical examiner identified the driver as 35-year-old Christopher Scott.
The tragedy happened just before 2 p.m. Thursday. The Coast Guard says the truck with a trailer attached went over the rail roughly a mile from Chic’s Beach. The Coast Guard responded with two Cutters and a flight crew from Air Station Elizabeth City along with Coast Guard Station Little Creek crews. The Virginia Beach police and fire departments and EMS and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission all searched for Scott, hoping to find he had escaped from the truck in the water.
“This is a deeply tragic conclusion,” said Capt. Jennifer Stockwell, commander of Coast Guard Sector Virginia. “We had hoped for a different outcome; our thoughts are now with the family in the days and weeks ahead,” she said.
Salvage crews from Crofton Industries recovered the tractor-trailer from the water at approximately 3 p.m. Friday.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel Authority is investigating the accident.
-Meg Walburn Viviano
