Written on February 16, 2026 by ΞVΞ🦋

Categories: Blog

Tags: accidents, bridges, cbbt, chesapeake bay bridge tunnel, virginia

UPDATE: Perdue driver dead after truck plummets from Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

Officials say around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, a tractor trailer went overboard and into the water on the west-side of the southbound span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

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www.wboc.com

I’m only posting this because I know first-hand how dangerous this bridge actually is. I grew up hearing the horror stories about it. It’s a local bridge where humans and science meet, and the majority of the time, science wins. It’s 17 miles of being at odds with physics and aerodynamics, especially if you’re a truck driver.

I think it’s cursed because it sits on Native land on the Eastern Shore, but every time I hear about a death on it, it brings me sadness of how it’s taken another life. Another person has met Davy Jones locker, just crossing a bridge. Not counting the regular car accidents, about 20 people have died by falling into the ocean below since it was built.

This is the Squid Game of bridges because there are so many obstacles on it, and failure to overcome just one of them often ends in death.

Although I’ve been living in New York for over a decade, I’m natively from Hampton Roads, Virginia, and drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel several times a year when visiting family. The bridge is on Route 13 and connects Eastern Shore, Virginia, to Virginia Beach (a city of Hampton Roads), so I take it because it’s a shorter alternative route from taking the crowded I-64. However, I am still terrified every time I drive across it. I know I’m taking a risk.

Like everyone who’s grown up here, we grow up hearing about all the freak accidents and deaths that have happened on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel; accidents are common, and the death list is long. The death list consists mostly of truckers. It’s a freight truck route between Virginia local farms and shipping docks in Norfolk and Portsmouth. I will never forget a couple of the most horrific of those accidents that happened around the 90s, where a head-on collision killed some drivers, and a truckload of live pigs flipped, leaving highway patrol chasing after packs of live pigs running down the highway. A pig truck flipping on it was not the only time that happened.

A lot of us natives avoid crossing the bridge unless we really have to; outsiders may not be aware of the bad juju surrounding that bridge, so every time there’s an accident on it, it’s big local news. On top of that, it not only has one of the most expensive tolls, it’s currently $16 – $21 to cross (just to potentially die), but it’s also under forever construction, which only adds to the chance of accidents.

So I guess you’re wondering what makes the bridge so dangerous? One word. Science.

There are many mechanics of science at play on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel because of where it sits; it’s practically in the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the mechanics are man-made, but most are just physics and laws of nature. And no, I didn’t research any of this. I just know because I’m from here.

The Crosswinds

The crosswinds are the most dangerous aspect of this bridge and the number one cause of accidents. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel sits at the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. So as a result, it gets hit on its east side from the raw, rogue winds of the wild ocean and on its west side, the swirling winds of the bay. The two winds aren’t always blowing in the same direction, so it causes this push-pull, suction effect where the bridge sits. As a result, on windy days, your vehicle is getting rocked with hard gusts from all sides, in different directions every few seconds. For low-lying cars this isn’t too bad, and you can recover by just slowing down, but these crosswinds are dangerous for freight trucks and top-heavy vehicles, no matter their speed, and will flip them or make the driver over-correct and lose control.

Sometimes, even if you can recover from the wind, this leads to deadly accidents because once you’ve lost control of your vehicle to the wind, people over-correct, and then you’re in the hands of science and will lose because you only have a small margin of error since the lanes are so narrow and there are only two, so chances are you’re going to hit somebody. A lot of people just lose control and hit the rails, or if it’s raining, they spin out and cause a pile-up.

There’s only two lanes on the bridge part, so you’re either going to sideswipe someone and cause a crash or hit the guardrail, and pray you don’t flip over it or go through it into the bay like this unfortunate trucker did today.

Idiots Speeding

The bridge is at the end of miles and miles of dark, empty country road on Route 13 before it hits the city, so people get overzealous. Imagine driving hours in the dark and then suddenly seeing the oasis of city lights in the distance, far on the other side of a nearly 20-mile bridge? So people, especially outsiders and travelers, try to speed across the tunnel and lose. The speed limit is no higher than 55mph for a reason. And sometimes it’s only 35mph when the winds are high. But people don’t follow the speed signs and pay the price. Sometimes, taking innocent people with them.

Head-On Collisions

If you manage to survive the first bridge section of winds, science and idiots, the danger doesn’t end there. A new danger arises. Head-on collisions. The bridge is oddly shaped because it used to be a two-way highway all the way through. But there were so many accidents that they decided to make it split, however, it is in the middle of this one-million-year-long construction to split the tunnels, so the bridges go from a split and then merge twice, and inside the tunnel, it is still two-way. Many people have fallen asleep or not paid attention or just got too close to clipping another vehicle in the opposite direction and collide inside the tunnel, sometimes fatal.

The bridge has two tunnels and 3 bridges, so you have to repeat the “obstacle course” a few times before you get to the land of Virginia Beach on the other side.

Forever Construction

The bridge stays consistently under construction because it’s used to be a two-way only bridge ending in a lot of head-on collisions, and heavy traffic, so they decided to expand it. However, it’s been in forever construction since 2017 and won’t be finished until 2028. The plethora labryinth of cones, lights, temporary reflectors and signs can be confusing, especially if you’re not familiar with the bridge. Even when I go to visit my family, I slow down to 35mph and pay close attention meandering through the obstacle course of construction. I have no doubt that it causes confusion and accidents.

Weather

Being Virginia, hurricanes and noreasters are common every fall. As a result, the bridge becomes super dangerous, so they just close it. The bridge sits on the ocean, so trying to cross it in those kinds of conditions would be a death sentence. But in normal weather, people driving too fast, hydroplaning, and spinning out are also common. And yes, sometimes they do go over the edge, too.

I can write so much about this bridge, but I won’t because of the time it would take. The short of it is, the bridge is a guillotine. It’s dangerous. It isn’t for the weak or inexperienced drivers because there are so many obstacles. Even I didn’t drive over it for the first time until I was in my late 30s. Don’t get me wrong, the nature scene from the bridge is captivating, it’s one of the reasons why I cross it; it’s beautiful. It’s definitely a feat of geological engineering. The bridge is so long, you can’t see the land on the other side of it. It just looks like it disappears into the sea, but so many people have paid the price.

If you’re interested in knowing more about the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, just Google it. The accidents and deaths are just too numerous to write about them all.

RIP to the trucker who died today on it, making him the 20th poor soul to plunge into its waters below and die.