Toronto Man Shaken By Near Miss When Ice Smashes Windshield

A Toronto man was shaken but alright after a massive chunk of ice slid off the back of a truck and into his windshield at Highway 427 and Derry Rd. Tuesday.

The piece of ice, described as "pizza-sized," slipped off the tractor-trailer he was driving behind and crashed into the passenger side of his windshield shattering more than half of it.

The driver, Mike, said he never had a chance to swerve out of the way.

"The tractor had just entered the highway so he was going like 90 (kilometres) and I was going 90 behind him" the young man recalled. "I don't even want to change lanes because there could be another car beside me ... I'd rather get hit than get into a big accident."

Experts say that sort of thing is hardly uncommon and that during periods of fluctuating temperatures when lots of snow has fallen it's always a good idea for drivers to leave plenty of extra space between them and large trucks.

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Hazards on the highway

To local firefighters, every passing hour without an explosion somewhere on the region’s stretch of Interstate 81 is a lucky break.

An estimated 216,000 gallons of flammable liquid zooms north and south along Augusta County’s bit of interstate every 60 minutes. Added to that are an unknown amount of corrosives, deadly gases and even radioactive waste hauled by truck.

They want to put in a truck only lane...What about the trains that haul that much in a couple of tanker cars?

So far, the local stretch has been catastrophe free. But that could change, experts said.

Yes, it could but it has not. A truck only lane is not the answer, it is however just another way for VA to make more money off the trucks.

An alternative safety measure is the weigh station, where truck drivers, their vehicles and cargo are monitored. Troutville, just north of Roanoke, and Stephens City, just south of Winchester, are home to I-81’s only permanent weigh stations in Virginia.

“I-81 is a heavily traveled interstate. It would make a lot of sense to put a weigh station” in or near Augusta County, said national highway expert Dan McNichol.

Oh, yea exactly put in another weigh station that's the ticket...VA makes enough off trucks now with the 2 weigh station's it has.

Even with a truck only lane, the "problem" is still there. I am all for making these highway's safe. But putting all the trucks into 1 lane is not the answer..

The full story is here