Truck plunges off bridge; driver dies after copter rescue

NORFOLK, Va. -- Driving through heavy winds, a tractor-trailer plunged off a bridge Thursday into the frigid waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

Even though the driver was seen alive and standing on the floating truck's roof, he was found in the water and unresponsive by the time a U.S. Navy helicopter reached him.

The truck driver died on the way to a hospital in Norfolk, said Thomas Anderson, deputy director of the Virginia-based Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District.

Anderson identified the driver as Joseph Chen, 47, of Greenville, North Carolina.

Anderson said investigators will determine whether wind or other factors, such as a medical emergency, contributed to the crash on the 23-mile span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Anderson said 12 people have driven off the bridge since it opened in 1964, and 10 of those people, including the truck driver, have died.

The truck faced no travel restrictions because wind conditions were between 40 mph and 47 mph, Anderson said.

Earlier in the day, however, wind speeds were as high as 60 mph, limiting travel to cars, pickup trucks and SUVs that weren't hauling cargo, according to the bridge-tunnel's website.

The tractor-trailer drove off the bridge shortly before 12:30 p.m., and the driver was rescued by the Navy a little after 1 p.m., U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Corinne Zilnicki said.

Zilnicki said heavy winds had forced a Coast Guard helicopter to abort its initial rescue mission.

Laurie Naismith, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said winds also thwarted her agency's attempts to use boats to rescue the truck driver.

But a helicopter from a sea-combat squadron was flying a routine training mission over the bay when the accident occurred, said Mike Maus, a Naval Air Force Atlantic spokesman.

The water was about 45 degrees, according to the website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.