Following Friday Accident, AAA Seeks Bay Bridge Safety Review

AAA Mid-Atlantic is asking federal officials to investigate safety measures on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge after a car fell off the eastbound span following a collision Friday.

Morgan Jade Lake, 22, of Sunderland is out of Shock Trauma in Baltimore, where she was taken Friday after the crash. Police said she was able to swim to safety and was assisted by a local boater before she was rescued.

The last incident of this kind was in 2008, when a truck driver was killed after his truck went through a jersey wall and into the water. In 2011, a driver was thrown into the Chesapeake Bay after a truck struck his car, according to a Baltimore Sun report.

"Based upon recent history, there would appear to be a failure of the restraint system on the Bay Bridge," wrote Mahlon G. Anderson, AAA's managing director of public and governmental affairs, in the letter to the National Transportation Safety Board. "Although a truck was involved [in Friday's crash], the vehicle that ultimately hit the barrier, and then went over it, was a passenger vehicle. This clearly raises questions about whether there was a failure of the specific restraint system used on the bridge, and whether it meets federal specifications, or whether the federal specifications for bridge barriers are inadequate to restrain a vehicle in this type of crash."

The full letter is available on AAA Mid-Atlantic's website.

Maryland Transportation Authority engineers found no structural damage to the bridge in an inspection conducted after Friday's crash, The Capital Gazette reported.