Limited traffic on Bay Bridge after truck topples

A makeshift truck stop is on Rt. 50 right before both spans of the Bay Bridge.  The wind speed has to dip below 39 mph before they can roll on.

"We went through the toll booth because we saw all the cars, and then they just told us to turn back around," said Peter Rowe, who was supposed to plow snow after driving from Salisbury to Downtown Baltimore.     

This Wednesday is a washout for Rowe.

"We left at 4 and got fuel and got here at about 7 o'clock at Camden Yards, just waited and waited until about 1 o'clock and they just told us to go home," said Rowe.    

That trip was stopped when a tractor-trailer overturned on the Bay Bridge around 2 p.m.  Thirty minutes later, the sustained gusts were over 55 mph so all traffic came to a stop for 3.5 hours.

When that happens, life is cut off between Maryland's eastern and western shores.

"There was probably about four of us that couldn't get to Outback of Annapolis due to the bridge being shut down around 2," said Michael Moran, who missed work.    

The parking lots at Wawa and McDonald's on Eastbound 50 were also packed with truckers, one who decided to turn around and take 95 to New York. 

Epifianio Velez says he had a long wait. 

“I'll be like three hours over the limit that we are supposed to run.  So I'm going to have to stop anyway before I get there, sleep the hours I have to sleep, then get back in the truck," said Velez.    

It's a tough life, which gets even tougher, when the wind, not the snow, knocks them off course.  Rowe said he did not get paid today. 

Maryland Transportation Authority Police says the bridge was inspected following the tractor-trailer accident.  The truck fell against a railing.

The Bridge reopened for trucks just before 10 p.m.