Semi truck falls off bridge in Virginia, Coast Guard says. Search for driver continues

A tractor-trailer plunged off a bridge in Virginia and into the water below, setting off a search for the driver, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The truck went over a rail on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel about a mile from Chic’s Beach in Virginia Beach at around 2 p.m. on June 22, according to a news release from the Coast Guard’s Fifth District. One person was in the truck.

Multiple agencies began searching for the person using aircraft and water vessels, according to the Coast Guard.

The search was continuing as of around 1 p.m. on June 23, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard’s Fifth District, which is based in Portsmouth, told McClatchy News.

A salvage company was working to pull the tractor-trailer from the water while Coast Guard officials maintained a security zone, she said.

No information was available about the truck driver’s identity, she said. Agencies were treating the search as a rescue mission.

Coast Guard Virginia Sector Capt. Jennifer Stockwell told WTKR there was a “slight possibility” the person could still be alive.

A witness to the crash told WAVY she heard a “loud, crashing noise.”

“It was very distinct,” Skylar Angell told the outlet. “It sounded like some kind of collision. And I looked over not thinking anything of it, and seeing a large, white square, which seemed to be a tractor-trailer to me, turns out it was. It was pretty scary.”

The 17.6-mile-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel crosses Chesapeake Bay and connects Virginia Beach to Virginia’s eastern shore. It consists of bridges and two one-mile long tunnels beneath the water.

Virginia Beach is about 20 miles east of Portsmouth.