Body of driver who drove off Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel still missing

The body of a Maryland truck driver who drove off the side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel last Tuesday still hasn’t been found.

But while officials have called off the search for Erik Mezick, his family hasn’t. They’ve gone out looking themselves, enlisting volunteers with boats to help.

“He’s my brother,” Kevin Mezick said. “He’s not going to be left alone. I’m not going to stop searching until I find him. I know he would do the exact same thing for me.”

Mezick, 47, was heading north on the CBBT on Dec. 29, driving a 20-foot box truck for Baltimore-based Cloverland Greenspring Dairy. His truck plunged through the guard rail around 8:20 a.m. near milepost 14, about three-quarters of the way across the 17-mile span.

After his truck hit the water, Mezick was seen outside the cab. It’s unclear if he was thrown or climbed out, but witnesses said he was drifting west, up into the bay.

His truck was recovered from the chilly waters on Wednesday around noon. The search for Mezick, which covered 178 square miles and involved multiple agencies, was ended about two hours later.

“Really, what it comes down to is the survivability rate,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Tara Molle.

Erik Mezick (right) drove his box truck off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on Dec. 29. He lived near Salisbury, Maryland and was married to Megan (left) for 20 years. (Courtesy of Kevin Mezick)

Mezick, who lived near Salisbury, is from a tight-knit family. He and wife, Megan, have been married for 20 years and have two children: Dylan, 18, and Hanna, 15.

He’d been driving for Cloverland since March, his brother said, crossing the CBBT on a delivery route about twice a week.

Tom Anderson, the CBBT’s deputy executive director of operations, said bridge-tunnel police are trying to piece together what happened.

“There’s no video or anything like that,” Anderson said, “and not very much in the way of eyewitnesses.”

Investigators planned to examine Mezick’s truck Monday, he said, “but I don’t know if it will yield a lot of answers.”

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The truck wasn’t equipped with a “black box,” Anderson said — a device that records data about speed and braking.

On the morning of the accident, Anderson said, conditions were windy across the mouth of the bay, but not enough to trigger any traffic restrictions. Trucks like the one Mezick was driving are allowed to cross unless sustained winds reach 47 mph — or Level 2 of the facility’s six-level system.

A Facebook page has been started to offer updates and organize help with the hunt. More than 4,000 people are following the page and some have offered to assist.

Mezick’s family searched with boats over the weekend and plan to keep going. They’re offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who finds his body.

“It just tears me up that he’s in that water by himself,” Kevin Mezick said, “and I can’t get to him.”

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

Robyn Sidersky, 757-222-5117, robyn.sidersky@pilotonline.com