By Tim Ebner
The Capital (Annapolis, MD)
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Rescue crews from Anne Arundel, Queen Anne’s and the state had for many years prepared for what they considered one of the worst-case scenarios on the Bay Bridge.
But Sunday’s fatal accident that sent a tractor-trailer over the side of the eastbound span was a precarious and complex situation that required quick action and cooperation. It also was a scenario none of them had faced. In essence, rescue crews were responding to two separate accident scenes — one on the narrow span and another in the water about 30 to 40 feet below.
Lt. Craig Moore of the Annapolis City Fire Department has lived on the Eastern Shore for more than 15 years and routinely crosses the Bay Bridge. But he said he has never seen anything like Sunday’s accident, which killed the driver of the truck.
The city Fire Department was just one of almost a half dozen county and state agencies that first responded to the scene of the accident, which posed dangerous situations for the rescuers who worked quickly to assess the situation.
Police and fire officials mobilized a fleet of vehicles, boats and helicopters to rush two victims to a shock trauma center and begin searching the dark waters for the missing truck driver.
Lt. Moore received the call just before 4 in the morning. Moments later, his crew was piloting an Annapolis fireboat to Sandy Point State Park, where they picked up five members of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department’s dive team, including Battalion Chief David Povlitz.
“It was really a two-part accident,” he said.
While Queen Anne’s and Anne Arundel firefighters aided crash victims who were trapped on the bridge, always vigilant of the gaping hole in the Jersey barrier caused by the truck going off the bridge, fireboats from the state and both counties began searching the bay and the truck for any signs of life.
Chief Povlitz said initially no one knew how many people were trapped in the truck, or if anyone was still alive.
“It was possible for vehicles to have air spaces,” he said. “There could have been some people still inside so we got there quickly and tried to act as fast as possible.”
The Kent Island Volunteer Fire Department was one of the first boats on the scene and relayed some of the early morning images and descriptions of the accident.
“They said the truck was in about 10 feet of water and maybe 2 feet sticking out,” Lt. Moore said.
The Kent Island firefighters also carried out a large portion of the search-and-rescue mission across the open water, but they could not find the missing driver.
By the time the Annapolis fireboat dropped anchor and the Anne Arundel divers jumped into the water, officials began fearing the worst. At about 5:30 a.m., the dive team found the body of John R. Short of Willards inside the truck’s cabin, and the Kent Island team transported the victim to shore.
“It was quite a complex incident and certainly had a lot of demands,” Chief Povlitz said.
Lt. Moore said he can’t recall another time when a vehicle went over the bridge and into the bay.
“There’s only one other time that a tractor trailer busted through the guardrail, about 15 years ago, but just the cab was hanging over the edge,” he said. “Other than that, I don’t think a vehicle has ever actually made it into the water.”
Gov. Martin O’Malley also touted the work of the rescue workers as they faced such a precarious and challenging situation.
“The unique nature of this incident and its aftermath have posed challenges for us all,” Gov. Martin O’Malley said yesterday. “But I want to commend the response of our state and local agencies and first responders for their quick and decisive action when they arrived on the scene.”
Officials said part of the reason both the bridge and water operations ran efficiently was because of an integrated communication system that connected state and county agencies on one radio frequency, a problem that had hampered joint rescue missions in the past.
“We had no problems talking to firefighters on the bridge, the divers in the water or the officers in the air,” said John L. Chew Jr., Queen Anne’s director of emergency services. “From our perspective all the partners worked well and there was no communication breakdown.”
The Maryland Eastern Shore Interoperability Network patched the radio signals from all first responders on Sunday, but last year the system failed in a similar Bay Bridge accident.
In May 2007 a trailer came unhitched from an SUV, causing a seven car pile-up that killed three people. During this incident, communications between county and state agencies had to be relayed either on the scene or by emergency command centers.
This time, however, Chief Povlitz said there was no problem reaching anyone either in the water or on the bridge.
“Overall it was a pretty coordinated activity for such a complex operation,” he said “This incident has always been considered one of the bridge’s worst-case scenarios.”
By noon, most Anne Arundel and Queen Anne’s first responders were sent back to shore after several hours of early morning clean-up and recovery work. Fireboats worked throughout the day to contain the truck’s diesel fuel that spilled into the water, and the Anne Arundel Fire Department performed an afternoon dive to ensure the bridges’ pilings were not significantly damaged.
Copyright 2008, The Capital