Man says rock from 210 Freeway construction cracked windshield

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- In October of 2017, John Bevan was driving on the 210 Freeway along the nine-mile stretch that's being re-paved. He said when he passed a sandblaster working on the roadway, it kicked up a small rock that hit his windshield. He didn't think anything of it until that dent became a crack.

"You've got people that are stripping lanes at the wrong hour, putting lanes hither and yon. You don't know where you're going from one day to the next, so it's an accident waiting to happen," said Bevan.

Bevan is in the process of filing a claim with Caltrans to hopefully help him pay for a new windshield, but he says gathering evidence while behind the wheel is nearly impossible.

"At 60 mph, I don't know that I'm going to be measuring the rock, nor could I stop on the freeway as Caltrans suggests and take names, addresses, numbers," said Bevan.

Caltrans estimates 100,000 cars and trucks travel the 210 corridor every day. The $148.5 million refurbishment program is expected to last the next 50 years. Caltrans says only a small number of claims have been filed by drivers seeking damages less than $10,000.

"We have had 31 claims for damage, 28 of which have been tendered to the contractor," said Tim Weisberg, public information officer with Caltrans.

During construction, the 210 has seen the number of collisions rise sharply. In 2014 before the project started, there were 285 collisions. There were 531 in 2017.

Drivers blame the constant lane stripping and the closure of on-ramps and off-ramps, but the California Highway Patrol says the rise in collisions is because of an increase in vehicles and speed, happening not only in the 210 construction zone.

"We've seen an increase in traffic collisions within that area, however, that's not the only area that we've seen an increase. On the 5 Freeway as well as on the 210 in Pasadena, our traffic collisions have gone up as well," said Ryan Bejar with the California Highway Patrol.