[air1mtt]

Am driving down I-95 just after the Philly record snowfall (four feet in five days). Doing about 65 MPH and just passing beneath a bridge when I hear what sounds like a gunshot. My windshield shatters but stays intact.

A large piece of ice had fallen off the bridge and had landed right in the middle on the windshield. The winshield shattered but stayed together, if you get my drift. It was like looking through a caleidascope the rest of the way home.

Anyway . . . I think that the way the windshield is canted (more vertical than most) may have helped. If the hit had been flatter I am thinking it could have penetrated the cabin, throwing glass into my face. After that who knows?

But I think the ice block hit and bounced due to the angle. There were some small glass shards on my dash, very small, but the windshield held together.

The point is, I WANT to believe that the angle of the windshield prevented a castrophe. $175.00 later all is good on winshield number two. But could have been a small price to pay considering . . .

 

[Jackson49]

That is a good windshield story. It could have been way worse. Maybe that is why they call it "safety glass".

 

[scorsone]

Very glad to hear that you are okay. You are probably in part accurate about the angle in that situation.

Some years ago after a snow/ice storm my wife and I were driving down the freeway when a large sheet of snow/ice came off the top of a semi trailer and through the windshield of a full size van. I believe the van occupants were fine but they lost the entire windshield. If the van had a more slope to the windshield the ice may not have penetrated the cabin.

Just glad to hear you are okay...

 

[brwntrt]

I had a similar incident on my road trip to Cali this Fall. A folding chair flew out of a pick up in front of me on the freeway outside Sacramento and put a basketball sized shattered circle in the windshield. As I was fuming on the side of the road I realized if it had hit the grill, hood or roof I'd have been looking at a $500 deductible instead of only $100. The irony was I'd just installed the Lund deflector a few days before to minimize rock chips.

 

[brwntrt]

repeating myself

 

[elementbryon]

When I had my lifted Jeep Wrangler I was always careful to drive little slower and a little more polite when meeting vehicles on gravel roads since the tires stuck out four inches past the fender flares and the BFG AT K/Os were rock chuckers. I guess some people just don't want to be polite though. A puny Toyota Taco blew past me fishtailing and launched a golf ball sized rock right into my windshield at eye level. The rock made it about half way through the glass and scared the living crap out of me. Thank the stars I was wearing wrap around sunglasses because there was glass all over the place, even in my mouth. If the perfectly flat and near vertical windshield of a Wrangler can stop a rock like that then the Element should stand up just fine.