How My Rear Windshield Exploded Into a Million Pieces

What had happened was. . .

Photo by William Spivey

I keep playing the scene over in my mind, trying to identify what caused my garage door to suddenly slam down on my rear windshield as I exited my garage. I don’t usually park in the garage. My wife does. She had a flat tire on her car, and none of the nearby tire stores had her tire in stock. I picked up my wife and brought her home after her car was towed to a safe location, not on the side of I-95.

The following morning, we got into my car to go deal with hers. I opened the garage door with the button on the wall just inside the garage when entering from the house. Given the time it took for us to enter the car and load some bags, the garage door had been open a minute or two before I began backing out.

I’d moved a few feet, observing what was in the back of me as there was another car to avoid in the driveway. The next thing I knew, there was a crazy loud crash/explosion, and I immediately hit the brakes. I put my car in Park, got out, and walked to the back of the car. I was expecting to see damage to the garage door. Instead, I saw a huge hole where my rear windshield used to be. The garage door was resting on top of the back of my car. The windshield itself had exploded into what seemed a million pieces, none larger than a small pebble.