This past Memorial Day weekend, hoards of Baltimore, Maryland, and other Mid-Atlantic residents and visitors traversed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The dual-span bridge is one of Baltimore’s most memorable historic landmarks and the subject of picture postcards. It’s also been the subject of controversy surrounding its maintenance, repair and safety, and the site of Baltimore traffic accidents — some of them deadly.
If you live or work in the Baltimore-Washington Metro area and you use the bridge to get where you need to go, you’ve no doubt been driven crazy time and time again by the bottlenecks that occur on the Bay Bridge. You’ve experienced headaches and frustration due to the ongoing redecking and restoration project, which causes officials to close lanes in spans of the bridge. If you don’t like heights, being stuck in a traffic jam over the water isn’t your favorite place to be. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, we’re aware of the legal cases that arise following traffic accidents on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
For example, a current lawsuit in the news concerns a fatal car crash that occurred on the Bay Bridge in 2007. The families of three men killed in a multi-car accident are suing the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) and a number of drivers for $19 million. The accident occurred when a trailer being pulled by an SUV disconnected, setting off a chain reaction that involved multiple vehicles. Three men were killed and five other people suffered injuries.
According to a recent news report, the attorney for the clients suing the state in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, court asserts that the MDTA knew accidents had previously happened during two-way traffic on one span of the bridge that did not have a barrier. The state is claiming that two-way traffic was not a factor in this fatal Chesapeake Bay Bridge accident.
In 2008, a harrowing tractor-trailer truck accident on the Bay Bridge involving two other cars — one of which was driven by a woman who, according to news reports, said she fell asleep at the wheel following a wedding — caused the truck to hit the sides and go over the side of the bridge, killing the truck driver. The truck, which swerved to avoid the car, broke through the bridge’s railing — causing the structure’s safety to be questioned.
Lawsuit accuses state of negligence in fatal crash
Examiner.com April 25, 2009
Bay Bridge Crash: ‘It Was Like a Bomb Had Gone Off’
The Washington Post August 12, 2008
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