PENINSULA, Ohio — "I was by a bridge and 'Bam!' and the shards flew all over me, and needless to say it was pretty scary. It sounded like an explosion."
Carl Krysiak isn't totally sure what hit his car. What he is positive about is the crater sitting right above his rearview mirror, with cracks stretching over most of his windshield.
He says it happened when he was driving on I-271 north near Peninsula, close to the bridge carrying state route 303 over the interstate.
"From the looks of it, it looks like something that's at least the size of a brick," he explained. "Across the top, the cracks and scratches going across the roof point to a piece of bridge."
This bridge doesn't have fencing around it, but Krysiak says he didn't see anyone above.
After reporting the incident to the Summit County Sheriff's Office and then to 3News, the Ohio Department of Transportation now has a crew out inspecting the structure. ODOT'S bridge inspector told us Wednesday they found no evidence of anything falling off the bridge.
"We've heard about people in other states who have died from this type of situation," Krysiak lamented. "If I had been on a motorcycle and this would've hit me, I'd have been dead."
Despite it all, Krysiak still feels lucky. Incredibly, the crack in his windshield was virtually parallel with a Saint Christopher medal his grandfather gave him years ago.
"There's a lot of people say my guardian angel was with me, and I believe them," he said. "One hundred percent."