Rescue On The High Rise Bridge

With his truck dangling 70 feet above a roiling river and a storm whipping 50-mph winds, a trapped driver’s only hope is a team of trained emergency rescuers—who are stuck in traffic

- By Anita Bartholomew

The winds this April morning were giving Wayne Boone’s massive 2007 Freightliner tractor-trailer a good lashing. A driver for Butler Paper Recycling in Suffolk, Virginia, Boone steered the empty 18-wheeler up a stretch of Interstate 64 in Chesapeake toward Virginia Beach, about 25 miles away, where he would pick up his first load of the day.

The 53-year-old driver pulled into the eastbound left lane of the G.A. Treakle Memorial Bridge, known to locals simply as the I-64 High Rise, a four-lane drawbridge that traverses the southern branch of the Elizabeth River. On the span, the storm let loose its full force, finding no obstacles in its path but vehicles, which it pummeled. Rain hammered Boone’s windshield. Winds grew fiercer. Boone slowed, letting cars pass. It would be good to get to the other side.

At the bridge’s crest, 70 feet above the rushing estuary, the concrete road gives way to steel decking. Even in perfect weather it’s easy to lose traction on the grids. Boone’s front wheels met the slick steel just as a powerful gust blasted the driver’s side.

To Boone, it felt as if the wind lifted his truck clear off the surface. He could swear that he was floating for a second before being dumped into the right lane. He had no time to consider how such a thing could be possible. His cab barreled into the guardrail on the far right edge, mangling the metal barrier that protected his truck from, pitching into the water below. He struggled to regain control. His empty trailer, meanwhile, jackknifed to the left, skidding sideways at an angle to the cab.