VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Family and friends are grieving the loss of 47-year-old Erik Mezick of Maryland after a box truck he was driving went overboard at Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on Tuesday.
His brother, Kevin Mezick, said Erik Mezick traveled over the bridge-tunnel about twice a week, driving for Cloverland Greenspring Dairy. He said his brother started that job in March.
A social media post alerted Kevin Mezick of the news.
“A friend of mine notified me because he saw it first, a couple hours after the accident, and said there’s a truck in the water from Cloverland and asked me if it was Erik’s route,” Kevin Mezick said. “I made contact with someone from Cloverland and found out it was Erik.”
Crofton Diving, of Portsmouth, recovered the truck on Wednesday around noon.
“I just can’t express what amazing father husband son and person he is,” said Erik Mezick’s wife of 20 years, Megan Mezick. “He loved his family and his grandma.”
“He was a great guy, always nice to people, always smiling,” said Mike Malone, a friend of Erik Mezick. “He would help you anytime if you needed help. Just a great person, and if there was a person that could still be alive and make it out alive it is Erik. He is a fighter and he would swim to the end of the earth to be back with his family.”
Family and friends are left searching for answers and closure as they begin to navigate the new year without Erik Mezick.
“I was shown a still picture of Erik going through the toll in his truck and he looked wide awake,” Kevin Mezick said. “You could see him whistling and then within 10 minutes, he was overboard. I don’t know if it was a malfunction with the truck, wind, or human error. We don’t know.”
“Erik never met a stranger and if you’re to talk to him, you better have time,” Kevin Mezick said. “Erik was a good dad, a good father. When he wasn’t working, you know, he’d be at soccer games. He was just Erik. He was my brother.”
CBBT officials said the search for Mezick was conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard with help from numerous local police departments and other agencies. They said the search was unsuccessful and concluded on Wednesday around 2 p.m.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation by CBBT police.