A wrong-way crash on westbound Route 58 near the Suffolk city line in Chesapeake has turned fatal, with the SUV driver dying days after the head-on collision. The crash happened around 7:39 a.m. on September 27, when a pickup truck traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes slammed head-on into an SUV, sending the SUV driver to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and the pickup driver to the hospital with serious injuries.
According to The Virginian-Pilot, the deceased man's family said in a social media post that he died Wednesday, three days after the crash. WAVY reported that Chesapeake police identified the man who died as the SUV's driver, 39-year-old Christopher M. Bergendahl of Suffolk.
Conflicting Details on Injuries and Timing
The two outlets also differ on smaller details surrounding the crash. WAVY reported that police responded to the scene around 7:40 a.m. on Sept. 27, while WTKR put the crash time at approximately 7:39 a.m. that Sunday. WTKR described the SUV driver's injuries as life-threatening and the pickup driver's as serious, while WAVY reported that the pickup driver sustained serious injuries and was taken to a local hospital.
What is consistent across the reporting is the severity of the impact. The station notes that a pickup truck was traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes when it struck an SUV head-on. Westbound Route 58 was closed at the Suffolk city line while investigators worked the scene and crews cleared debris from the roadway, and drivers were advised to seek an alternate route.
Investigation Continues as Cause Remains Unclear
As of the most recent reporting, the crash remained under investigation, according to WAVY’s coverage of the incident. No official explanation has been released for how the pickup truck came to be traveling against traffic on the divided highway.
Wrong-way crashes like this one tend to be especially dangerous because of how they unfold. A National Transportation Safety Board report found that, on average, 261 fatal wrong-way crashes occurred among 9,393 total crashes studied, and that about 82 percent of wrong-way events involved front-to-front collisions, typically with one or both vehicles traveling at highway speed, according to the agency's findings. A separate Virginia Transportation Research Council study has examined roadway features tied to wrong-way entries and compiled countermeasures aimed at preventing them on the state's interstates and multilane divided highways.
For now, the circumstances behind the Route 58 crash remain under investigation.
