VICTOR, N.Y. – Imagine driving under a bridge at night and all of the sudden you run straight into exposed rebar that is hanging from above.  That’s exactly what happened to some drivers in Victor last week. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured, but their cars were badly damaged.

“It was pitch black, there’s no lighting in the tunnel,” says Tina Michalik, who ran into the rebar. “I walked back and took pictures of the rebar, it’s not hanging down it was bent down so it’s very solidly in place, yea it was shocking to me, it was almost to the ground.”

The incident happened at the bridge that takes the Thruway over High Road in Victor. It was late at night and there are no lights beneath it, so people had no idea what they were driving into.

While waiting for police, Michalik tried to alert other drivers. “Two more cars hit the rebar, one moved on and one stayed so… I tried to flag them down and warn them but you just don’t expect ever to run into something like that,” she says.

While shaken, Michalik was not hurt but there’s a lot of what ifs. “What if, what if… I had been over eight inches, if she (daughter) had been in the car with me, it’s terrifying to think of and it could happen again,” Michalik says. 

Thruway workers were called to the bridge immediately to make temporary repairs. “They said just the constant pressure and it pops out and he said it’s not uncommon for it to come lose,” she recalls. 

The federal government requires every bridge be inspected at least once every two years. According to NYS’s bridge inspection records, this bridge was last inspected in April of 2024 and despite it being nearly 80 years old, the amount of exposed rebar and the crumbling façade, it’s not considered to be in “poor’ condition.

In a statement a spokesman for the Thruway tells News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke, “The bridge is safe. Following reports of the incident, our maintenance and bridge inspection teams responded and made the appropriate repairs.  It was determined that the issue stemmed from a leak in a concrete joint. Maintenance crews will continue to monitor the bridge on a weekly basis. A permanent repair is part of a larger Thruway project that is expected to begin in the Spring.”

To review inspection data for all bridges in NYS, click here.

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