‘I’m very lucky’: Driver unscathed after concrete falls from bridge, smashes SUV

By WBZ Staff

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    SOMERVILLE, Massachusetts (WBZ) — State transportation crews spent some time inspecting a highway bridge in Somerville Tuesday, while a visitor from California counted his blessings. “I think I’m very lucky to not be injured,” said Leonard Brown.

There was shattered glass all over his Audi, slivers sparkling on his jacket as he explained how a chunk of concrete fell from the bridge and hit his windshield. “It angled as it went through the windshield, so it came by like that,” he said, brushing his hand past his face. “I didn’t know what it was.”

A piece of concrete could be seen on the floor of the SUV, and another one next to where he sat in the driver’s seat. But the biggest slab landed squarely on the rear dash. “It went right by my head,” he said.

He thought it was a piece of ice blowing by when he heard the thud. “Until I realized after a few seconds that the glass was hanging towards me and there was a big hole there.”

A hole in the window, and nothing more than a scratch on his hand.

Brown has been staying in Boston with his wife from Santa Barbara, California while she undergoes cancer treatments. He was relieved she wasn’t in the car with him when it happened.

The concrete hit his vehicle when he was on Route 28 near Assembly Square, approaching the southbound ramp to Interstate 93 at exit 20.

He said he hopes more is done to prevent what could have happened. “If I had been going a different angle to how it hit, it would have hit me square I’m sure of it, and I don’t think I would have survived,” he said.

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