An ordinary drive to work nearly turned deadly for a St. Clair County woman when a chunk of concrete flew through her windshield on I-696 westbound, near I-75.
She wasn’t near an overpass, she thinks it was a large piece of the crumbling pavement on I-696 that flew into her windshield and destroyed her Bluetooth system. She is grateful to be alive
Geri Blish is still shaky after this morning’s terrifying commute on westbound I-696.
Just after 7am, she was in the left center lane on a straight away between Dequindre and I-75 when a semi truck passed on the right .
“He was throwing mud and things from the road up at me and then a rock came through,” she says.
She heard a crash
“It took me a second to just look and I went ‘Oh. My word. There is a huge hole in my windshield’,” she says.
A huge hole in the windshield, shattered glass everywhere - even in her hair, her Bluetooth system damaged, cell phone knocked out of reach, Geri was in shock.
“Seriously by the grace of God I got off the expressway,” she says. “So it was just absolutely scary I’m just glad it was the passenger seat and not me.”
“I try to be such a diligent driver but, you know, what can you do when you have road that’s crumbling no matter where you are on I-696,” she says.
MDOT says they know it’s bad.
“We’re replacing all of that concrete because it’s in such bad shape,” says MDOT spokesperson Diane Cross.
A major reconstruction project is scheduled to start this spring.
“I was complaining this is going to be so such a headache, but now I’m so grateful that they are doing this I wish they could start it today,” says Blish. “I mean this could happen literally right now to someone else driving in the same Position that I was in.”
MDOT will be picking up that piece of cement so they can confirm it’s a piece of the road.
