Highway accident claims two lives, calls in mutual aid
DEPARTMENTS
DISPATCHES
A tractor-trailer truck, southbound on the Washington, D.C., Beltway, cut into the outer lane of the Cabin John Bridge to avoid a speeding car that was swerving recklessly from lane to lane. The truck collided with another car, its cab completely going over the passenger vehicle, throwing it on its side.
Upon impact, the car’s gasoline tank ruptured, causing the vapors to reach ignition source, and fire flashed throughout the truck’s cab and trailer. The truck crashed through the bridge’s guardrail, its cab dangling 100 feet above the Potomac River. The car, too, was draped over the guardrail, wedged between the trailer’s front wheels and the railing.
Fire personnel from Maryland’s Naval Ordinance Lab (NOL), traveling on the beltway, witnessed the incident and radioed an alarm to the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center at 3:27 p.m.
With the help of civilians, NOL fire fighters freed the truck driver from the cab. The driver suffered burns over 90 percent of his body. He died the next day.
Witnesses’ reports of a second victim having jumped or fallen from the flaming cab were confirmed by the trucker calling out for his father.
Montgomery County’s Special Evacuation Tactics Team and Underwater Rescue Team were dispatched to search the Potomac for the truck’s passenger.
Meanwhile, the driver of the car managed to climb unassisted from a window and along the outer ledge of the bridge to safety. His escape was possible because of the position of the car. The car’s driver sustained burns over 20 percent of his body.
Seven engines from Montgomery County responded to the incident. One of the engines applied 10 gallons of foam to the burning truck, and 50 additional gallons of AFFF were supplied by a specially called unit. An engine, a tower ladder and a 2500-gallon tanker from Fairfax County also responded, as well as the Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Md., and McLean, Va., rescue squads.
To extinguish the flames in the trailer, a relay pumping system was set up to supply water to the attack units. In addition, the truck was carrying fluorescent light fixtures. Melted by the intense heat, the fixtures’ toxic fumes impeded fire fighters from immediately reaching the seat of the fire. After a sustained attack with foam, two deluge guns and hand lines, the operation was terminated at approximately 4:30 p.m.
The search for the truck’s passenger continued throughout the next day. Two days later, the body was recovered—500 feet downstream.
—Brenda S. Simmons
Photographer Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad
Bethesda, Md.
