Debris on the Front Stretch
by Serendipitous | Published on June 29th, 2008, 4:20 pm | Life
I spent part of Saturday tackling a chore I put off for far too long – cleaning my car, inside and out. So now my wheels are free of breakdust and the tires shine. Everything on my car looks shiny and happy. I even paid special attention to my windshield and achieved a mostly streak-free finish. So today is Sunday. No big rush to get anywhere. The kids and I are headed to Barnes and Noble in our happy, clean car.
Picture this: we’re on the interstate, 4-lanes wide on each side of the median. I’m the second lane from the left, going 70 mph, following behind a line of cars that are going about the same speed as me, maybe just a tick or two slower. There are cars, going only slightly faster, passing on the left (as they should), and when I look in my rearview mirror, there are faster cars approaching that decide to pass on the right.
So then everyone starts stacking up, and all the cars are three- and four-wide. The right-passers are a few cars ahead of me, ducking into the lane I’m in. When everyone is stacked up like that, it’s hard to see what’s up ahead in the road. Being in this pack is starting to feel dangerous, and that’s when everything seemed to happen at once.
I see a piece of something fly up up ahead, but it doesn’t look like it hit anyone. Then I see some big, black piece of something quickly flying towards me, and I’m already thinking I don’t have anywhere to get out of its path yet I don’t think that has even fully registered until it actually hits my windshield. I yell, “What the hell was that?!”
I try to use my rearview mirror to see where the debris went and what’s going on behind me, but the impact of the whateveritwas was jarring enough to make the mirror dip down. All I can see is my kids in the backseat. My son was startled by everything, probably moreso from me yelling, and is crying. I tell my daughter to comfort her brother because he’s scared. And in a shut-yer-bitchass-up voice she says to him, “You’re okay!” Yeah, way to be comforting, Big Sis! And while all this is going on, I did manage to see a larger piece of a blown tire in the lane, so maybe that was related to the debris that hit my windshield.
Still driving, and having not locked up or freaked out other than yelling, I need to assess the damage, so instead of pulling over, I drive another half mile to get off at an exit and pull into the parking lot of a credit union. Here's what happened to my pretty, streak-free windshield.
And to top it off, I had to replace my driverside wiperblade. It was broken in the incident. And evidently the last time I replaced them, I bought nicer ones, so that was $18 that I hadn’t planned on spending. But I can’t complain too much. I’m glad it’s just a windshield and a wiperblade that needed replacement.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/13/earlyshow/living/main629212.shtml
July 13, 2004 - Last month, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released a study on vehicle-related road debris. The study revealed that it caused 25,000 accidents - and nearly 100 deaths - each year.
To hear the story of Federici’s accident is frightening. To see the result: the shattered windshield of her Jeep, the 60-pound piece of pressboard wedged in her car, is stunning. That she survived at all is considered something of a miracle.
Doctors spent 15 hours reconstructing Federici's face - using bone and sometimes using titanium plates.
Federici will never see again. She will not smell or taste. She has some brain damage and now must relearn what she did easily before the accident.
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=5293953
A piece of debris on the East Loop played a role in a fatal accident Wednesday night. A motorcyclist drove over a large wooden board, sending his bike into the air and causing the rider to hit the guard-rail. He died at the scene.
As for insurance, my coverage for the windshield comes from "comprehensive" blah blah blah. The insurance peeps did say that I could use it up to three times a year for windshields. Whatever.
