‘It sounded like a gunshot.’ Concrete from bridge crashes onto car, Michigan woman says

Tracie Moonen was running errands with her daughter when she says a chunk of concrete fell from a Michigan overpass and landed on her car at Exit 93 where Dixie Highway meets I-75 in Oakland County, WDIV reported.

“It sounded like a gunshot hit my window,” she told the Detroit Free Press, explaining that she initially thought it was a piece of ice. “I don’t know where my eyes were but [her daughter Kassidy] said something, I looked briefly at her and the next thing we knew it hit and we were screaming.”

Moonen was able to pull over to the side of the side of the highway and call 911, the Free Press reported.

The impact knocked her rear-view mirror off her windshield, which was shattered, WDIV reported.

Moonen said officers with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office soon arrived and assessed the situation, telling her, “Yeah, a bridge just fell on your car,” WDIV reported.

Officials said the piece of concrete was about the size of a baseball, the Free Press reported. Any larger and it could have broken through her windshield.

Moonen said she’s taken that route every day for years and could tell the bridge — built in 1962 — was damaged, the newspaper reported. It carries a “poor rating” due to cracking, chipping and corrosion, according to the Free Press.

In a statement to WJBK, the Michigan Department of Transportation said a bridge inspector found no evidence that concrete had fallen from the bridge.

“That being said, out of an abundance of caution and despite there being no evidence of concrete falling from the bridge, a crew will be out Wednesday morning for a further in-depth inspection,” the department told WJBK. “We are so glad that the driver and her family are okay after this scary situation.”

MDOT added that the top side of the bridge is scheduled for railing replacement, deck and joint repair and epoxy overlay in September, WJBK reported.

Moonen said she now has an insurance deductible to pay and has filed a claim with MDOT, WDIV reported.

“I just hope MDOT will make it safe so this doesn’t happen to someone else,” Moonen told WJBK.

Oakland County is just northwest of Detroit.

This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 1:01 PM with the headline "‘It sounded like a gunshot.’ Concrete from bridge crashes onto car, Michigan woman says."