Couple hit by concrete dropped from Vancouver freeway overpass

VANCOUVER, Wash. – A couple narrowly escaped death when their pickup was hit by an 8-pound chunk of concrete as they drove beneath a freeway overpass, police said.

Two vehicles were hit by pieces of concrete that were dropped or thrown from Southeast 10th Street onto Interstate 205 early Sunday morning, police Cpl. Cathleen A. McNicholas said.

The first chunk dented the roof of a northbound 1991 Volkswagen Jetta about 3 a.m. and the driver, 18 or 19, escaped injury. Soon afterward, another smashed through the center of the windshield of a southbound 2001 Ford Ranger pickup, showering glass onto Steve Bruce, 27, and his wife Chalinya.

Bruce said he was driving about 60 mph as they headed home to Gresham, Ore. He and his wife were treated for minor cuts and fragments of glass were removed from their eyes at a hospital.

Police told the couple that if the concrete hit more to one side or the other, "it would have killed one of us," Bruce said.

No witnesses could be found in the immediate aftermath, McNicholas said, and police asked the public to report any information that might lead to the apprehension of whoever was responsible.