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This article was published 25/8/2014 (2217 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Darlene Korzinski's truck was damaged Sunday after she says it was hit by a baseball-sized rock.

A close call with a large rock has a Winnipeg woman wondering why a pedestrian bridge over a busy highway inside the city isn't screened off.

Darlene Korzinski got a scare Sunday night when a rock slammed onto the top of her new Nissan truck as she drove westbound along the Chief Peguis Trail under the pedestrian bridge at Gateway Road. Korzinski was chatting with her sister inside the cab when a loud noise rattled both of them.

"All of a sudden we heard this 'bang' and it scared me," Korzinski said Monday morning. "My sister thought it was a tire, but I thought it came from the roof.

"We took a look and when I stood up on the door frame, I saw a huge dent and the white dust from the rock.

"The more I think about it, the more serious that is. A lot of people drive around in convertibles. That could cause a serious injury, not to mention an accident. I ride a motorcycle, too. If I was riding and someone threw a rock like that, I'm a goner. That's so dangerous."

Immediately after impact, (judging from the dent on the edge of the truck roof she figures the rock was the size of a baseball) Korzinski pulled over and looked back at the top of the bridge. Her sister tried to take pictures of the people running away, but it was too dark. The sisters also noticed there were a few good-sized rocks on the highway, as well, suggesting to Korzinski that those throwing the rocks had been at it for some time.

"I don't know why they don't have a cage or screen around that bridge," she said. "This is a highway where vehicles are travelling at a high rate of speed. They have one on the footbridge at Bird's Hill Park over Highway 59. To me, it's the same thing.

"Someone is going to get killed."

Though there is a traffic-light controlled intersection just east of the pedestrian bridge, the posted speed limit on the Chief Peguis Trail is 80 km/h.

This isn't the first time this summer motorists have had to deal with rocks raining down on their vehicles. In June, three boys were charged with mischief after they were caught dropping rocks off the Pembina Highway overpass onto traffic on Bishop Grandin Boulevard.

-- staff