Subaru Outback with windshield punctured by a branch. Photo from www.theblaze.com
This morning I read with sadness the story of a man in Colorado who died when a branch, apparently torn from a tree in a powerful windstorm, punctured the windshield of his Subaru Outback and impaled him in the chest. He managed to steer the car to the side of the road before he lost consciousness, thereby saving his wife from injury. Read the entire story.
This story hits home for me because in December 2007 I had a close call which ended on a much happier note. I’d posted a short article about it on my old blog. I was on my way to see a sea turtle release on Longboat Key to write an article for VisitFlorida. Here’s the photo of my windshield and a relevant excerpt from my blog post:
My 1996 Buick Regal windshield damaged in 2007 by a flying piece of tree root or branch. You can click the photo to enlarge it.
As I was approaching the bridge over Anna Maria Sound on Manatee Avenue, a large dump truck traveling in the opposite direction somehow launched a chunk of wood into my lane. I saw it coming straight at my face and managed to duck down behind the steering wheel as it made a very loud and explosive impact. After realizing I was still alive and regaining control of the car, I drove over the bridge and pulled over at the Kingfish boat ramp to survey the damage. I was covered with glass. I had glass in my hair, inside my glasses, all over my clothes. Glass covered the entire interior of the car. After reporting the incident to FHP and my insurance company, I decided to go ahead and see the turtle release.
I’m not sure why the wood did not penetrate the glass. Perhaps it was because it first bounced off the hood of the car before hitting the glass. More likely it was because of the angle of impact and possibly because of the thickness of the Buick glass. Small cars tend to have thinner glass. The glass technician who replaced the windshield said I was lucky the car had such thick and high-quality glass. Something to think about before you buy that Honda Fit.
I’m still driving that Buick, and even after several vacuumings I can still see the sparkles of glass dust in the now almost disintegrated carpet under the back windshield.
So yeah, I’m feeling really lucky today after reading about the not-so-lucky guy in Colorado.
