CBS 2 Exclusive: Drivers Say Messy, Wet Concrete Splashes Cars On Staten Island
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Cars were getting drenched with chalky, white, liquid concrete as they passed under the Staten Island Expressway, and motorists are fit to be tied.
As CBS 2's Dave Carlin reported exclusively Tuesday night, driver after driver showed CBS 2 cars splattered with what looks like paint after passing under the expressway on Manor Road in Todt Hill, Staten Island, the day before.
Construction workers were above, causing what drivers call a rainstorm of liquid concrete.
"The cement was coming down from the overpass," said Frank Magliolo.
Magliolo's car was covered with concrete splotches, and his neighbors' Cadillac was worse -- requiring four back-to-back washings that still didn't get it all.
"Concrete -- it was all over," said Vinny Mandy. "It was, like, all chalky, all over the car."
Residents said the car windshields were a mess, and the drivers couldn't even see out. They said they were left with no choice but to pull over.")
"It's a safety hazard here," a woman said.
"This a mess here," added Victor DeJesus.
Victor DeJesus said he was walking past when he was hit – not his car, but him.
"I got hit with a nice outfit -- a sweat suit that I have," DeJesus said. "I had to go back home and change, so it's ridiculous."
A spokesman for the New York State Department of Transportation, which oversees the expressway's $200 million dollar upgrade, released a statement about the mess – saying what landed on the cars was really just water.
"They were sawing concrete on the bridge and water got through the containment area," spokesman Beau Duffy said in the statement. "It was not concrete or cement."
But car detailer Mike Magiolo said that was not true.
"Definitely not just water -- 110 percent, definitely not water," he said. "I was scrubbing it. It wasn't coming off."
Car owners said the state should pay for their costly clean ups and do more to stop such slop.
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