An unidentified passenger traveling through the highways of Massachusetts just went through a harrowing ordeal that looks like it could have come straight out of the "Final Destination" film.
The Massachusetts State Police posted a photo on its Facebook page showing an unsecured ax that came flying from the back of a pickup truck and ended up wedged right through the windshield of the car behind it. Fortunately, no one was hurt, though the woman sitting inside the car was shaken up.
The incident took place around 11 a.m. Wednesday as the motorists were driving southbound down Interstate 95 in Topsfield, Massachusetts when the hatchet came soaring through the air from the landscaping truck in front of them and pierced the car's windshield. The photo, which has earned more than 5,500 shares and 1,000 comments since its posting, shows the head of the ax lodged into the passenger side's dashboard while approximately half its handle remains outside the windshield.
The police said Trooper Joseph Risteen of the Newbury Barracks responded to the scene and fined the truck driver, who is identified only as a resident of Peabody, Massachusetts, a $200 ticket for failing to secure cargo.
The Massachusetts State Police hopes this will serve as a reminder for contractors and other motorists to properly secure all items for transporting, including luggage, furniture, beach chairs, bicycles, canoes and construction tools.
The officers also wish to remind motorists to stay below the speed limit at all times to minimize the chances of accidents such as this. The driver of the car struck with an ax was driving at 65 miles per hour, which was within the state's legal driving speed. Had he been going faster, the increased speed would have intensified the impact of the ax and could have broken more than his car's windshield.
"Please remember those lessons," said state police on its Facebook page. "We are very thankful that this situation did not have a worse ending."
However, the incident seems to not be the first instance of an unsecured object flying off a vehicle and putting motorists driving behind it in danger.
"My friend's daughter almost got killed after a truck full of compressed car parts let loose," writes a commenter named Rena H. Fontaine. "An alternator ended up on her windshield! Hit her shoulder... She needs years of operations!"
Another commenter Lori Tisdale spoke about the time she narrowly missed being hit by a "huge bale of hay" that rolled off a truck in front of her. Shawna Rutledge also had a similar experience on the ramp from 145 to 160, when a truck hauling furniture let loose a vanity mirror that had thankfully shattered before it reached her car.
"My husband was almost killed last weekend when the lid of a trash dumpster came flying out of the top of a trash truck, tumbling up in the air bouncing off a guard rail and slamming into the grill of the car in front of him," writes commenter Jeannie Boucher Saunders. "Please secure your things; the highway is dangerous enough without people being careless with (their) cargo!"
