Inches from death in storm, trucker lives to tell tale

So, just how scared was he?

Rob Roll, the truck driver whose rig came soooo close to being blown off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel during Tuesday's storm, shared his wet-your-pants moment.

"Severely scared," he said, "the most I've ever been in my life."

Seven trucks and three automobiles have gone over the side of the CBBT since it opened in 1964, according to Chief Edward Spencer, and only one person has ever survived.

"That speaks for itself," Spencer said of the odds of making it.

Roll, a 6-foot-2-inch, 220-pound New Yorker, has been driving commercially for 27 years.

"I've made hundreds of deliveries in some of the toughest neighborhoods in the world," he said. "And I'm not normally afraid of anything. But this... I don't even know how to describe it."

Roll said Tuesday was the first time he had crossed the CBBT in about 25 years. On that day, it seemed like the best route between the load of aluminum cans he had just dropped in Maryland and the glass bottles he was supposed to pick up outside Williamsburg.

"I figured I'd take in the scenery," Roll said. "It was a beautiful day."

Around 4:30 that afternoon, a weather alarm sounded over Roll's CB radio, just as he was downshifting at the toll booth on the Eastern Shore side of the bridge. The warning predicted nasty weather to roll in around 5:30 p.m.

"So I figured I had at least an hour," he said. "The sun was still shining when I pulled away from the toll booth. When I got out onto the bridge, I could see the buildings all the way on the other side. That's how clear it was."

Spencer said the storm's advance caught everyone by surprise. Windy conditions normally cause gradual traffic restrictions on the bridge-tunnel, using a scale that escalates from levels 1 to 5.

Empty tractor-trailers like Roll's are turned away at Level 2.

"We went to Level 1 at 4:32, and Level 4 at 4:33," Spencer said. "It was an incredibly fast-moving storm. It just engulfed the whole facility at once."

Drivers already out on the 17-mile-long bridge had no choice but to dash for the other side. Roll said the gale resembled a "wall of white coming across the Bay." He was heading for the first tunnel when the gusts - some clocked as high as 78 mph - hit his 53-foot trailer, pushing him sideways into the left lane.

"The next thing I feel is it's lifting me up," Roll said. "I can see the passenger seat is higher than I am. I kept trying to steer the truck back into the wind so it would come back down on its wheels. I don't know when the thought occurred to me - before or after I hit the guardrail - but I remember thinking, 'Oh my God. I'm going over the guardrail.' "

Glass shattered. Metal squealed. Sparks flew. Roll instinctively closed his eyes, white-knuckled the steering wheel and strained his body toward the center of the cab.

"It all happened so fast," he said. "A bazillion things are going through your mind at once - trying to figure out what to do and when to do it. No, my life didn't flash before my eyes, but when I finally came to a stop, I was thinking about my wife and kids."

A bridge-tunnel police officer happened to be driving right behind Roll.

"I'll never forget that guy," Roll said. "He jumped up there and opened the passenger door so I could climb out."

Roll said he never looked back at his truck, teetering over the rail: "To be honest, I didn't want to see it."

Taken by ambulance to a hospital, Roll was declared "just banged up" and released. That night in a hotel, he saw his truck on the TV news.

"It looked a whole lot worse than I even knew," he said. "I had no idea it was leaning that far over the edge."

Some people would have headed to church. Some would have headed to a bar. Roll said he just wanted to sleep.

"But I did say a little thank you to above. No doubt about that."

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