Ice falls from Sagamore Bridge, smashes car windshield
BOURNE - A quick drive to pick up a customer's spare key, came quite literally to a crashing halt Thursday, when a dealership employee crossing the Sagamore Bridge was hit by falling ice. Glass from the windshield sprayed across the car.
"Of course, the main thing for us is our driver is safe. That was really all that matters," said Mark Rountree of Hyundai of Plymouth. "I've been in the automobile business for 30 years. I've never had ice fall off a bridge and damage a car."
Navigating the narrow lanes of the busy bridge is already a white-knuckle ride for many local drivers, as is.
"I can't imagine the terror of it happening because, you're not expecting it," a Mashpee driver said. "The sound of it, the crash of it, the impact of it. Must have been absolutely horrifying."
"There's no place to pull over. And then once that happens you can't see anything," another driver said.
"I'm sure it was scary, and I feel badly for whoever it happened to but it's not anybody's fault per se. The timing of the storm and the temperature created the problem overnight," one man added.
The bigger problem, for those who frequent the bridge, is the aging infrastructure itself.
"I don't think there's a state remedy, I don't think there's a county remedy, I don't think there's a federal government remedy. We need new bridges," the Mashpee driver added.
The driver in this case was impressively able to maintain control of the car and pull off safely to call police. A second vehicle was also hit by falling ice Thursday afternoon. Police said no one was hurt and the vehicle, with damage to its sunroof, did not require a tow.
