'I'm Very Lucky': Ice From Truck Smashes Through Woman's Windshield On Route 24
QUINCY (CBS) - A Quincy woman is grateful she escaped unharmed when snow and ice came off the roof of a box truck and smashed into her windshield as she was driving on Route 24 in Brockton. Shards of glass came raining down on Maureen Regan when the box truck went under an overpass and the snow and ice dislodged flying in her direction.
"It was a loud bang; it was like an explosion inside the car. It was so scary it was just black inside my car," said Regan.
The windshield kept cracking and Regan was fearful it would all come crashing in. "I was covered from here down, on my face, my hands, in my hair," she said.
Regan says she was keeping up with traffic on the highway going about 60 to 65 miles an hour. Having to suddenly pull over to the breakdown lane in traffic was another frightening moment.
"It was petrifying, I didn't know if I would get hit by a bunch of cars because I almost had to come to a stop," she said.
Regan believes hers is a cautionary tale about cleaning ice and snow off vehicles and hopes no one else was hit behind the truck that day. "Just to save people's lives," she said. "You don't realize how dangerous it is until it happens to you."
The truck driver likely never knew what had happened behind the vehicle, but failure to remove ice and snow from rooftops comes with civil fines up to $200.00 in Massachusetts. Police can also seek criminal charges.
"I'm very lucky, very lucky when I think about it," she said.