Driver Lucky To Be Alive After Hitch Smashed Into His Windshield
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – -- A Clearwater man is perfectly fine after an unusual accident troopers say was nearly fatal. The photos show the damage to Peter Pozorski's car. A trailer hitch flew off of a truck and into his windshied west of the Cities in Montrose Minnesota.
At a truck stop in Clearwater, truck driver Roman Brown says there are rituals before they hit the road again. He's heading to Atlanta in the morning, and he showed us how he starts every trip.
"I do it when I wake up, when I'm getting loaded," he said. "I check everything most drivers don't. That's why we have problems here."
Photos from the Minnesota State Patrol supported that point.
"That's not supposed to happen," Brown said. "Not supposed to drop off. That looks bad."
Last week, a trailer hitch catapulted off a truck in Montrose into a young man's car.
"He saw it bounce over the car, hit the pavement and come up into his windshield," Lt. Tiffani Schweigart with the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Schweigart says the man's speed and proper following distance allowed him to slow down. If he'd been traveling a few miles faster, she says the outcome could have been the worst.
"The weight of the object was 28 pounds at a 55 mph speed limit, which was the roadway they were on, would have been a thousand pounds of force hitting his person," Schweigart said. "That would not have been a survivable injury."
She says it's rare, but all about awareness.
"Most drivers can't expect that, so it really comes back to safety on the front end, ensuring loads are secure, checking equipment regularly to make sure it's safely secured to the vehicle," she said.
Roman Brown says if you spot a loose load on the road, call it in, or try and follow the driver to a stop to tell them.
Lt. Schweigart says the safest thing to do if you haul anything is to get it professionally checked out twice a year.
