Lawsuit against CBBT in death of truck driver who plunged over the side starts Tuesday

A trial starts Tuesday in a $6 million lawsuit filed over the death of Joseph Chen, a trucker whose rig plunged off the side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on a blustery day nearly four years ago.

The lawsuit — perhaps the first of its kind against the CBBT — was filed by Chen’s widow. Billie Jo Chen is accusing the bridge-tunnel of violating its own wind restrictions policy by allowing her husband’s empty tractor-trailer on the span on Feb. 9, 2017.

The trial, which takes place in Northampton County Circuit Court, is expected to last three or four days. Attorneys representing Chen say they’d originally hoped to have a jury hear the case but opted for a bench trial in the face of pandemic-related backlogs.

Joseph Chen was 47, an experienced driver delivering seafood for Evans Transport, a company based near his home in Greenville, North Carolina. A typical route carried him up Interstate 95, across into Maryland and down the Eastern Shore. By the time his Kenworth neared the northern entrance of the CBBT that Thursday morning, a powerful storm howled across the mouth of the bay.

Such conditions kick in the CBBT’s six-level system of traffic restrictions, which clamp down on certain types of vehicles as wind escalates. Semis hauling empty trailers — more vulnerable to being tossed around — are stopped from crossing if gauges along the 17.6-mile span are detecting gusts higher than 46 mph.

Douglas Desjardins, the D.C.-based attorney representing Chen’s widow, says CBBT logs indicate a 47-mph gust hit just as Joseph Chen threaded the toll plaza and entered the span. At 12:21 pm, when his front tires struck the curb near mile marker 15 and his rig shot through the guard rail, a CBBT gauge clocked a 50-mph blast.

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Attorneys defending the CBBT have not responded to the newspaper’s requests for comment. Court documents indicate they intend to argue that the CBBT has sovereign immunity, a shield that typically blankets governmental entities, protecting them from negligence lawsuits.

In addition, a CBBT police investigation concluded Chen was at fault. Several witnesses said he was going too fast for conditions and lost control when he tried to pass another semi.

But Desjardins says another witness reported seeing Chen’s trailer lifted by the wind “like a sail” right before his rig hurtled over the side.

At least 16 vehicles have gone into the water since the CBBT opened in 1964. Most have been tractor-trailers.

Desjardins said he’s scoured archives for lawsuits comparable to Chen’s but found none.

A verdict isn’t expected for several weeks.

Billie Jo and Joseph Chen, of Greenville N.C., had been married for almost 10 years when he died in 2017 after his tractor-trailer went over the side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. (Courtesy of Billie Jo Chen)

Joanne Kimberlin, 757-446-2338, joanne.kimberlin@pilotonline.com