So driving on a Sunday morning two weeks ago and out of nowhere the windshield on the Q7 takes a massive hit. Was in the middle lane, traffic was light and the car in front of me started to gradually slow down. I wanted to pass him on the left but I noticed my BSM was on and a quick look over my left shoulder confirmed a car was in my blind spot, right lane clear so I moved over. Approximately 7 cars ahead in the left lane I noticed a silver Kia that had his right directional on and was slowing down, so instead of moving over I stayed in the right lane (BTW I’m never in the right lane due to exiting and entering traffic) until I knew where he was going.

He moves to the center lane and as he crosses into the right lane from the center BOOM the Q7 rocks like it was hit by a train.I gradually slow down and immediately check on my wife who says she is fine but has glass in her lap and on her legs. I tell her not to touch anything and then I look in the mirror to make sure no one is closing in on me. Lucky we were both wearing sunglasses or I am sure we would have gotten glass or glass dust in our eyes.

Instead of pulling onto the shoulder I decided to get off the highway since the exit was in view and less than a 1/4 mile away. I exit and pull into a parking lot to check the damage and call my insurance company. I honestly didn’t want to get out and look figuring that without a doubt the hood, front bumper, roof or all were damaged based on the force of the impact and what the windshield looked like. But to my surprise not a single mark, scratch or anything on the body.

The windshield was actually indented one inch into the cabin from where it took the initial impact and there was a slight hole in it. Of course being a Sunday there was no place to bring it so I had my insurance make an appointment with Safelite. I requested OEM glass and to my surprise I was told they only use OEM glass on my model. Two days later all was back to normal.

I still don’t know what it was that hit me, there is no way the Kia could have kicked up something big enough to cause that kind of damage without me or my wife seeing it. If I would have went under an overpass I would said someone threw a rock, but I didn’t. But after looking over the location again, I realized that the particular shoulder of the parkway between the exits where it happened is a densely wooded area, so much so that if someone was standing in them only 6 ft from the right lane it would be hard to see them. So this made me think maybe someone threw something.

So I called the NYS Police and explained the situation, I told them that I just wanted to make them aware of what happened and maybe one of the Troopers could look over the area, or at least keep an eye out for anything suspicious. My feeling was that if someone did in fact throw something I would hate for it to happened to someone else. Time to look into dash cams..






NOTE: All that dust that you see along the trim and center console in the pic below is not dust.. It's actually all tiny glass particles and glass dust that sprayed the cabin, I found out the hard way when I gently wiped my finger across it. I had my jacket in the back seat and it had glass on it.... I was worried about scratching the heck out of the trim so instead of having Safelite clean it I sprayed the dash, console, seats doors etc with compressed air.. Then I sprayed the console and trim liberally with detail spray before wiping it with a microfiber..

 

Gonna trade it in for a Trackhawk? Durango SRT possibly?

 

Glad you and your wife are okay JT!

 

Thanks, no definitely keeping it, I love driving this thing too much..

 

Holy.Crap. That's scary. Glad you and your wife are okay and that the damage was limited to the windshield.

 

Insane, had to have been something fairly large to do that much damage.

 

Crazy. You and the Mrs. are fine, and that is what matters.

 

Holy cow.... Glad to hear you and the wife are okay. I can't imagine how you both must have felt in the moment. I'm really curious where the foreign object came from. That shit must have been huge to do that kind of damage.

 

Well Jeez, JT.
I hope you learned your lesson.
In the V, you'd have been going so fast the atmospheric pressure would have changed and the rock would have hit the car behind you.

 

 

Thanks guys.... Yeah very scary moment that's for sure, within seconds from the moment of impact all I could think of is shit I hopes shes ok.. And when she said she was fine nothing else mattered, its a car, its a windshield it can be fixed or replaced.. I didn't even realized until after I pulled over that my hands had a few small cuts on them until my wife said you're bleeding.

Now two weeks later and what still bothers me is that I never saw it coming. The more I play it over in my head there is no way it came from up ahead because based on the damage it had to be a good size object and we would have both seen it.. All of of us have had one of those "oh crap I couldn't avoid it" moments when driving, but this was literally out of nowhere and then BOOM!!!

The Safelite tech said that based on the angle of the damage to him it looked like the object came from the right, and looking it over he was correct it didn't look like it came from directly in front but who knows.

So based on that if it had passed through the windshield at the angle the tech demonstrated with a stick it would have either hit me in the head near my right ear or would have missed me landed in the back seat.. That's what also lead me to believe that someone might have thrown something from the shoulder since I was in the right lane.

 

Damn that is insane. Glad to hear you and the wife were alright. And here I thought what hit my window was big and made a loud noise. I can't imagine the sound inside the cabin from something that left that size of a mark. Did you have any headaches after the loud sound in the car?

Scary to think people do stuff like throw objects at traffic on the highway.

 

We actually both had headaches later that evening, mine carried into the next day but figured it was more of a tension headache..

I can't even described how loud the impact was, it was so loud that my wife kept asking me afterwards how I kept my composure, she couldn't understand how I didn't slam on the brakes or lose control.

I told her I didn't have an answer, but my first instinct was to ask if she was ok, glance in the mirror and take my foot off the accelerator. I didn't want to brake in a panic in case someone was closing on me and then I get rear ended. She also could believe that I had the wits about me to turn on the hazards lights.

Honestly it was all a blur and all happened in a 20 to 30 second time frame. And still don't have an answer for her..

 

Damn dude, another code brown moment posted on the forum. Apparently people are out to get our windshields lately.

 

^ "Code brown" is putting it nicely, I think I have to replace the drivers seat..LOL

 

HOLY Never seen damage like that before. Glad you are both okay. It looks like it hit right behind that pop-up screen. Maybe that helped?

I will never skimp on windshield glass.

 

know something funny...in 1999 in my old accord...a royal palm frond came down on my windshield while traveling upwards of 45mph...it looked like a bowling ball came through the window, it was at night and I didn't have eye protection. I got lucky af, but oddly I had the same reaction...composed. Now that you mention it, that's a great quality in a driver that likes to push the limits a bit.

 

Back to hitting that pipe again I see...

 

Man, that Audi glass is pretty terrible quality. Goes from just fine, to smashed, all on it's own! Claim warranty!!

 

Glad everyone is okay, JT!

 

Wowzers. Glad you are both ok.

I'm trying to figure out wtf could have done that... not a pebble. I wonder if some fucktard person thought it would be 'cool' to throw shit at cars (like the dropping bricks from overpasses thing you mentioned) and it indeed hit you. Maybe a baseball or something based off that size?

 

I know, that glass is terrible.. And then to make matters worse when I took it to the dealer they said it was "operating as designed" and wouldn't cover it..Those SOB's... LOL

Thanks..

Welcome to my world, I've been trying to figure it out for over two weeks and the more I think about it, and the more I drive past the location the more I think that someone threw something from the right shoulder..

 

Holy crap just seeing this now! That's unreal Glad you guys are ok. That must have been something massive to cause that much damage. Scary.