Close call: Ice chunk flies off truck, shatters N.S. man's car windshield

Flying ice shatters motorist's windshield There's plenty of ice underfoot, but this chunk flew off a truck and hit a car. Marie Adsett reports.

A Halifax driver is considering himself lucky after an ice chunk flew off a truck and shattered his car windshield.

After the close call, Ken Walker is calling for drivers to make sure they clear the snow and ice off the top of their vehicles -- especially after the string of ice storms which have walloped the Maritimes.

“What many people don't realize is that our vehicles are weapons and if you don't clean the ice off … it could have very serious consequences for people,” he told CTV Atlantic.

He was driving along Nova Scotia’s Highway 101 -- an east-west highway in the province -- when two chunks of ice hit his car. The first chunk only caused minor damage but the second shattered his windshield.

Walker said the second ice chunk punched about 15 centimetres into the glass but didn’t break or shatter it completely. When the ice hit, he said the sound was like “someone took a baseball bat to the windshield very, very hard.”

“I was holding the wheel with both hands and I just hung a little harder,” he said, adding he had to duck his head to clearly see out the window in order to pull over to the side of the road.

“I had glass shards on my lap and -- fortunately -- I wear glasses but they were [still] on my face,” he added.

Luckily for Walker, an ambulance driver had been driving behind him, so they were able to also pull over to help him.

There isn’t a specific fine for failing to clear the ice of your vehicle, according to the province’s Motor Vehicle Act. But there is one for failing to secure a load on your vehicle.

“It's about $237.50 and that's an offence we could use in a situation,” RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Clarke told CTV Atlantic.

Despite this fine, Walker believes trucking companies should have snow-clearing policies in place and that drivers should be penalized if they fail to completely clear their vehicles.

Because of their size, truckers may not even be aware of the damage they left in their wake. Walker said they should still be responsible for any damage that’s caused when ice falls off their trucks.

“Incidents like this cause a lot of grief for families unnecessarily,” he said. “It's just take the extra couple minutes it takes to clear off your car.”