Achi news desk-
A Montreal couple is finding it difficult to drive without stress and is unhappy with the city’s maintenance after a section of highway crashed into their windshield while driving at night.
“I’m just happy to be alive,” said Hillary Cohen. “I just see this thing flying at me.”
Cohen and her husband Dan Chulva were driving along Highway 40 East towards Montreal from the West Island on Thursday night.
As they went under the Route 13 underpass, something smashed into the windshield of their Volvo SUV.
“We just saw this huge piece of concrete in the shape of a meteor flying towards us,” Choluwa said. “It just came at what looked like 100 mph, and it went right into our windshield, it bounced off our windshield and then hit again a second time and bounced off the right of our car with a huge, huge impact.”
Cohen put on makeup in the passenger seat and looked up to see the black object.
“I looked at him and said, ‘Are we dead? Are we dead?'” Cohen said. “The impact was so strong. It was so fast. All I remember is just seeing black coming at me.”
The couple’s car suffered enormous damage to the windshield, rearview mirror and front camera.
“It was a real surreal thing,” Chulva said. “It sounded like a bomb went off in our car.”
A couple’s windshield was shattered on April 4, 2024 after a piece of peat flew at their car and smashed it while they were driving on Route 40 in Montreal. (Hilary Cohen)
He said he was shocked when he continued driving, and tried to stay in the lane to avoid danger to other drivers.
“I had no idea what had just happened,” he said. “I just saw my windshield in pieces. It was so weird.”
The couple went to the Montreal Police Station (SPVM) and said officers told them it must have been ice from Thursday’s storm.
Cholewa said county police told him the next day that the damage was caused by broken pieces of a pothole on Route 13, and that other drivers had made similar complaints or called 911 on the stretch of road.
The Surete du Quebec (SQ) told Cholewa that the pit was filled.
The parents admit that their children were not with them in the car.
“We have three-year-old twins, and they might never want to get in a car again. It’s really stressful because you’re going under those underpasses.”
Now they are stressed while driving and angry to think that there are many potholes in the city that could be in a similar situation.
They are also grateful that they drove a Volvo.
“It didn’t hit me right away,” Choluwa said. “When it really hit me was when it sank when I went to Volvo West Island to change my windshield, and the technician who changed my window said that if it had been any other car, it would have been fatal. That for me, it was when I just sat back and realized how serious this incident was.”
