ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Most of us have had a rock hit our car while we were driving, and that can be scary.
But imagine that rock hitting your car at 75 mph, and shattering your windshield while on the freeway.
“It was huge,” Coleen Gleason said. “We were in shock when it happened.”
Gleason was riding with her boyfriend in their Chevy Silverado last Saturday afternoon, driving south on U.S. 23 near Ann Arbor. The pair had just passed the Plymouth Road exit when a Pure Michigan moment happened.
“And then the car in front of us switched lanes and hit a pothole, and then this massive rock-like chunk spun off their back tire and came and flung at the windshield,” Gleason said.
They were able to get to the side of the road safely, but when you see the damage to their vehicle in the video player above, you might wonder how.
“Well, yeah, it left like a 4-inch gap in the windshield,” Gleason said. “So there was enough to where I could stick fingers through the windshield if I wanted to. So there was broken glass throughout the truck’s cab. It got into like our eyes and our hair. It went into our drinks we had in like the console. We still have to vacuum out the truck’s backseat, there’s still glass shards back there.”
Gleason and her boyfriend found a Safelite nearby in Ann Arbor and quickly got the windshield fixed, but their insurance deductible was too high to make it worth a claim.
So, Gleason filed a claim with the state of Michigan, but she says she isn’t holding her breath.
“I just think what if something worse would have happened? Who would have been held accountable then?” Gleason said. “So, I’m just thankful that he and I were fine. And there are no other vehicles injured.”
While everyone is OK, Gleason worries that people will brush the issue off, when the results could have been more severe -- especially if it happened to an inexperienced driver.