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Concrete Chunk Hits Car Near Navy Pier, Motorist Says

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Heads up! A motorist says drivers need to be warned after a slab of concrete came smashing down on his car.

It happened Sunday afternoon on lower Lake Shore Drive and Illinois, where  you turn to go to Navy Pier.

Tom Driscoll, an Army sergeant in Vietnam, used military parlance to describe the incident. He likened it to a flashback of his combat days.

"It sounded like an RPG hit a transport," Driscoll told CBS 2's Brad Edwards.  "For one second, I didn't know if I was alive -- it was like shock. If it was one fraction of a second slower, the piece would have gone through the windshield and got me directly in the face and I wouldn't be here talking to you today."

He guestimates the cement block weighed 30 pounds before shattering on contact -- an eyewitness guessed the same. The damage caused $2,000 in damage to his car, which itself is only worth that amount, he says. And yet he feels lucky not to have been hurt.

"My concern is the city should do something about this," Driscoll says.

A city transportation official said the department was unaware of the incident but would look into it.

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