{"id":226294,"date":"2026-05-10T12:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/226294\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:12:08","slug":"massive-piece-of-debris-falls-in-nyc-tunnel-leaving-driver-inches-away-from-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/226294\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive piece of debris falls in NYC tunnel, leaving driver inches away from death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An NYC commuter narrowly dodged death in the tunnel under the Bridge Apartments when he was suddenly confronted by a massive piece of falling debris.<\/p>\n<p>In a scene like something out of a horror movie, John Toledo was commuting home from his job at the city Department of Environmental Protection around 6 a.m. Thursday when the frightening incident totaled his car.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLucky to be alive. Car is Done. Now I need to figure out who can I file a complaint to,\u201d Toledo,61, posted on Reddit. <\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.75;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39332795\" width=\"443\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/large-piece-debris-fell-ceiling-127347565.jpg\" alt=\"Debris falling from the ceiling of a dark tunnel on the Trans-Manhattan Expressway.\" class=\"wp-image-39332795\"  \/>The driver posted harrowing footage of massive debris falling from the roof of a tunnel on the Cross Bronx Expressway.  John Toledo<\/p>\n<p>He had no time to stop or swerve out of the way and barreled into the giant slab, <a href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/huge-slab-of-concrete-smashes-onto-busy-manhattan-expressway?utm_source=sfmc&amp;utm_medium=nypr-email&amp;utm_campaign=Gothamist+Daily+Newsletter&amp;utm_term=https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/huge-slab-of-concrete-smashes-onto-busy-manhattan-expressway&amp;utm_id=578741&amp;sfmc_id=85492468&amp;utm_content=202659&amp;nypr_member=False\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Gothamist reported. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The incident occurred on the Trans Manhattan Expressway, the stretch of road that connects the George Washington Bridge to the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2017\/02\/20\/this-nyc-roadway-has-the-worst-traffic-in-the-nation\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cross Bronx Expressway<\/a>. The tunnel in question <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/1999\/07\/09\/hero-tenants-were-beacons-of-light\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">travels under the Bridge Apartments,<\/a> a complex of four 32-story apartment buildings in Washington Heights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I would have been one or two more seconds further forward, instead of that piece of concrete hitting the front of the car, it could have come through the windshield, and I wouldn\u2019t be speaking to you,\u201d Toledo told the outlet.<\/p>\n<p>Toledo,\u00a0who works for the city Department of Environmental Protection, posted dashcam footage of the harrowing incident online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the sake of anybody else driving that road in the future there should be some concerted effort by those responsible for that structure to examine it.. so that something like that does not happen again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.75;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39332792\" width=\"443\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/large-piece-debris-fell-ceiling-127347855.jpg\" alt=\"Debris falling from the ceiling of a tunnel, with two trucks driving ahead.\" class=\"wp-image-39332792\"  \/>The incident totaled his car.  John Toledo<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/28\/us-news\/port-authority-to-install-new-tracking-devices-on-fire-trucks-after-deadly-laguardia-airport-crash\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Port Authority<\/a>, which is responsible for the roadway, said in a statement it inspected and repaired the damaged area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Thursday, a video surfaced showing what appeared to be debris falling approaching the GWB. Following an inspection of the affected area, we confirmed that a localized ceiling component had failed and then completed all necessary repairs,\u201d a Port Authority Spokesperson told the Post in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The footage spooked Reddit users, who were horrified by how close the driver was to certain destruction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverytime i go under that thing I wonder what the hell is holding that building up,\u201d one user posted. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYer lucky you werent killed,\u201d another said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An NYC commuter narrowly dodged death in the tunnel under the Bridge Apartments when he was suddenly confronted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[318,26802,57,9,56,63,65,64,12621,2023,58],"class_list":["post-226294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-freak-accidents","tag-george-washington-bridge","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-port-authority","tag-traffic","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}