Two separate, but related, multivehicle accidents on the High-Rise Bridge on I-64 through Chesapeake, Virginia (VA), sent three people to hospitals with serious but not-life-threatening injuries on June 9, 2012.
According to the Virginian-Pilot, the first collision involved four vehicles on the westbound side of the bridge. In the confusion and backup caused by the initial crash, four other vehicles wrecked. Police continue to investigate the first accident because one of the drivers left the scene before authorities arrived.
The Chesapeake accidents happened several hours after a much more serious crash involving two cars and a tractor-trailer on the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River on I-95/495 in Northern Virginia. Police say that crash killed the at-fault car driver and one of his passengers. A third passenger and the driver of the big were badly injured in the rear-end collision and subsequent car fire.
Driving on bridges can present challenges to many. Lanes narrow, and vehicles bunch up as motorists uncomfortable with heights or passing over water slow down. The briefest moment of distraction or slightest loss of control can easily result in an accident on a bridge that leaves many injured or dead.
Add a willingness to flee the scene, which one person involved in the first crash on the High-Rise Bridge had, and you face a situation where not only lives are changed in a moment for the worse, but a complicated process of identifying at-fault drivers and ensuring victims get justly compensated for their crash-related medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering.
As Virginia personal injury and wrongful death attorneys, we have helped victims of hit-and-run accidents, rear-end collisions and vehicle fires hold the people who harmed them to account. All people hurt in the Chesapeake and North Virginia bridge crashes should speak with lawyers to ensure their rights and interests are protected.
EJL