'So scary': Flying shovel misses Mississauga driver by just centimetres
It started as a routine drive for Komal Syed.
“I went on the 403 from Winston Churchill”, the Mississauga resident told CTV News Toronto. “I just had two...exits to take.”
It was just before 11 a.m. on Monday and Syed was headed to an appointment. She says she noticed a white sedan pull into the lane in front of her, causing her to reduce her speed. It was then she noticed something was odd about the car.
“It’s bumper started moving. And I was like, okay it seems like it’s bumper is coming off. And next thing I hear - a crash.”
Police are warning people to properly secure their cargo after a metal shovel flew into the windshield of an Ontario driver's car.
That crash was caused not by a bumper, but by a shovel flying through her windshield just centimetres from her face.
“I honestly don’t know where the shovel came from,” Syed said. “From what I recall, the bumper was moving. The bumper seemed to be coming off, but it wasn’t. Eventually what was in my car was a shovel.”
Syed says in the moment she managed to remain relatively calm.
“I turned and saw this shovel in my windscreen and I realized that, OK this is pretty big,” she said with a slight chuckle. “I mean I obviously screamed and I must have panicked, but I didn’t swerve luckily.”
Syed pulled to the side of the road and surveyed the damage. A cell phone video she took at the time shows the extent of the damage. She said she didn’t even realize that she was covered in broken glass until a tow truck driver who had stopped to help pointed it out.
While she recounts the story with a nervous laugh now, she says she didn’t realize until much later just how different the incident could have been if they shovel had hit the windshield in a different place.
Komal Syed's car is photographed after a metal shovel flew into her windshield.“The next day when I shared it, and I was repeating what happened, that’s when it hit me that it could have been anywhere.”
Syed says she drove the same route the next morning in order to dissuade any fears she might have about safety. And says she has a message for other highway drivers in the hopes that others won’t have to go through what she has.
“If someone is going to go on the highway with tools or equipment, please make sure it’s secured properly. Because this is just like ... so scary.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
What Michael Cohen said on the stand in Trump hush money case
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.’s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease’s progression.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
Behind the barricades: How protesters spend their first days in a new encampment
Students in Montreal describe life in a newly erected encampment in Montreal as a whirlwind of preparations, from facing rain and a potential police crackdown to setting up a space for the exchange of ideas.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Canucks' Soucy suspended 1 game, Zadorov fined $5,000 for post-game crosschecks on McDavid
A Vancouver Canucks defenceman has been suspended for a game and another was handed a hefty fine after a scrum broke out at the end of Game 3 against the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night.
'Judge Judy' Sheindlin sues for defamation over National Enquirer, InTouch Weekly stories
'Judge Judy' Sheindlin sued the parent company of the National Enquirer and InTouch Weekly on Monday for a story that she said falsely claimed that she was trying to help the Menendez brothers get a retrial after they were convicted of murdering their parents.