Car damaged by falling debris on Cross Bronx Expressway
The driver says somehow, he was completely unharmed.
A car driving on the Cross Bronx Expressway Thursday morning was damaged after debris fell from above it, just before the George Washington Bridge.
"I didn't hear any noise, anything else," John Toledo, the driver of the car, said in a phone interview. "It was almost like a slow motion process, I see this big thing coming across the front of the windshield, and there was zero, nothing I could do, except hold on to the steering wheel and brace for the impact.
The Port Authority, which oversees that portion of the road, confirms to News 12 in a statement that something did fall, saying "A detailed preliminary inspection did not identify structural damage; based on our findings to date, the material appears to consist primarily of dust and light material from above."
But Toledo, who was on his way home to Clarkstown in Rockland County from work, says based on the damage to his car, it seems a bit more substantial than that.
While he knew something was wrong, he says he also knew he could not stop on the bridge, so he slowly made it across before pulling over in New Jersey.
"Maybe it was survival mode, to say 'I need to get out of this situation," he said.
In addition to damage to the front bumper, both of Toledo's front tires ended up being flat, and a flatbed truck needed to carry his car back to his driveway, but he says somehow, he did not have a single scratch.
"The car looks a mess, it is a mess, but I'm grateful of the fact that it was not what it could have been," he said. "I told my wife, 'a second or two seconds earlier when that piece came down, we wouldn't be having a conversation, things would be so much different."
Toledo has not been able to bring the car to the shop yet to get a full look at the damage to the bottom and get an estimate, but he does say he hopes the Port Authority will pay for the repairs, something it tells us "will be reviewed through the Port Authority’s standard process."
"It's not a matter of pointing a finger, blame," Toledo said, "it's just something that happened but there's always a sense of responsibility, so my perspective is just that that's something that has to be addressed."
Bigger picture, the Port Authority says over 50 million vehicles went across the George Washington eastbound into the city in 2025, calling it "the busiest bridge in the world."
"I don't want this to happen to anybody else," Toledo said. "Because the thing is, it could have been worse and... we all need to be confident that where we're going, whether it's a bridge or a tunnel, that those structures are in good condition."
The Port Authority says, "out of an abundance of caution, the Port Authority will conduct additional overnight inspections of the ceiling panels in this section of roadway, including lane closures to allow for a comprehensive examination and any necessary immediate mitigation measures. The safety of the traveling public remains our top priority, and this investigation is ongoing.”
