Car Plunges From Bridge, Killing 5

A car crashed through a railing on an elevated section of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and sank in 12 to 15 feet of water, killing three women and two children.

The bodies were recovered early Sunday.

The driver of the car had tried to pass another vehicle late Saturday on the bridge-tunnel combination, which connects Virginia Beach and Maryland’s Eastern Shore, said Lorraine Smith, spokeswoman for operators of the two-lane, 18-mile-long thoroughfare.

When the driver saw she could not pass safely, “she pulled back into the lane and clipped another southbound car and she lost control of her car,” Smith said.

The woman’s car then veered into the northbound lane, struck a guardrail, was hit by an oncoming car and crashed into Chesapeake Bay.

Smith said all the cars appeared to be traveling at safe speeds.

Authorities did not have the victims’ ages, but Smith said one was an infant.