The woman who survived a terrifying accident on the Stevenson Expressway last week is speaking out about the incident.

A giant chunk of concrete came crashing through the windshield of her black Lexus on Friday afternoon while she was heading north on Interstate 55 near Pulaski. The slab fell as she got to the Pulaski Overpass.

Viktoriya Petriv and her mom, Roxanne Kovalchuk, cannot get out of their heads the events of that day.

A windshield was destroyed, and a slab of concrete that nearly killed Kovalchuk.

"The whole family is lucky that she is alive. It could have been so much worse. If she just swerved a little bit to the right," Petriv said.

"Yeah, like that, and I would have died," Kovalchuk said. "In one second – something like 'boom' and that was it. I don't have nothing."

She said she was heading to work when the boulder came through and shattered into three pieces in the passenger seat, back seat, and trunk of her SUV. She was somehow able to pull over, and witnesses came to help.

"My whole body hurts. Especially here and my legs, all over, right? But the worst part is my head," Kovalchuk said.

"The mental trauma and the trauma she is going through is so much worse right now," Petriv said.

CBS News Chicago reached out to the Illinois Department of Transportation to see how this could have happened.

In a statement, they said in part, "We are continuing to investigate. We have done multiple inspections since Friday and have not seen any loose concrete, but did perform some preventative maintenance today out of an abundance of caution."

IDOT also attached the latest inspection report from October 2024, which they say shows no major issues found with the bridge that was built in 1997. 

 "My mom today, when we were driving to the hospital, she was like, 'Can I sit in the back? I can't sit in the front," Petriv said

For Kovalchuk, she said, for the rest of her life she will have to deal with the mental and emotional toll from this accident.

They both said they are considering legal action and believe someone is at fault.

"It did not fall out of the sky. Someone is responsible for this," Petriv said.