Saturday night, Ron Giesman was driving when he hit something, but wasn't exactly sure what.
“Just driving along eastbound, going under the overpass. Really within a second, there was a piece of debris in the road. I struck it with my vehicle,” Giesman said.
He was able to get to the side of the road safely, but his car was damaged.
“Catastrophic failure of the tires. Pretty big chunk,” Giesman said.
A chunk of cement had fallen off the overpass in the eastbound lanes of SR-33 just before the Marysville exit.
“I literally have never had that happen before, so a first for me!” Giesman said.
If you are wondering just how often something like this actually happens, ODOT says they maintain 15,000 bridges across the state, and in the last two years, they've had seven complaints of falling concrete from overpasses.
ODOT and the Marysville city engineer checked out the bridge right after Giesman reported the incident. They removed any loose concrete, and ODOT says they will be back out in a few weeks to inspect the rest of the bridge to decide if more work needs to be done.
“They assured me they had it under control and were looking at the bridge from a safety perspective,” Giesman said.
As for Giesman, he's keeping a closer eye to the sky.
“I'm a little, I'm really, really aware of everything that's going on around me now,” he laughed.
ODOT says Giesman handled everything just as you should. He immediately called 911, then reported the incident on ODOT's website so they can check the bridge out. Giesman has also filed a claim to be reimbursed for the damage.