Published April 11, 2024

FREDERIC SERRE
The 1510 West

A West Island man says he’s been left in the dark by the Sûreté du Québec and Transport Québec in the wake of a serious road incident last Thursday in which a piece of concrete from a Highway 13 overpass came crashing down on his car’s windshield as he and his wife were driving along Highway 40 east. The couple miraculously escaped without injury, thanks, they said, to the strength of the windshield which somehow did not collapse.

“We have not had any follow up,” Dan Chelowa told The 1510 West on Monday.

The SQ and Transport Quebec have remained mum since the incident, saying only that the case is under investigation, adding that the pothole on Highway 13 that is believed to have been the source of the concrete that caused the accident has since been repaired. Officials with both agencies could not be reached for comment yesterday, although the SQ told Chelowa that at least 12 similar incidents were reported to 911 prior to his incident.

Chelowa, meanwhile, says that with so many similar cases having been reported to authorities even before his post about the incident went viral on social media, the matter should be taken more seriously.

“The police said they had over a dozen similar reports. They told me to file an insurance claim and have a nice day,” he said. “There’s zero accountability for any of this and I think that’s the most frustrating part of it.”

“We didn’t get hurt, that’s all that matters in the end,” he said.

Chelowa continued driving and even attended the gala, only reporting the incident to a downtown Montreal police station, where he was told to report it to the SQ the next day because Highway 40 is an SQ jurisdiction.

“I don’t think it has really sunk in yet, but the extent of what happened and how it happened is very scary,” said Chelowa.

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