Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Side and rear windows of most cars are tempered glass. (Look it up) They will shatter into tiny pieces when subjected to impact. That is on purpose, so you don't get cut up with shards like window glass. It's called "Safety Glass".
Any tiny rock or a bullet or certain tools will do this.
When you see people beating on a car window trying to break it, and failing, it is because the just don't know how to do it. Rescue people carry a sekrit gadget to get through to save people. Police do not know about this, apparently, but EMTs do.
You were hit by a pebble or a stray bullet, probably.
Maybe a passing car launched a rock or something and it hit and broke the window before bouncing off. I've seen people hit things on the freeway and have seen the object fly.
this is my thought as well. glass these days is so thin compared to yesteryear that a glancing blow from a rock can shatter the glass.
also often times glass these days is part of the structure of the car, instead of floating in its mounting area, and as such is always under stress. any defects in the glass, even ones you cant see, will eventually become a shatter point.
I had the rear windshield shatter inward one time while driving down the highway. Given my occupation at the time, it was entirely plausible (and my first assumption) that someone was shooting at me. However, none of the other windows broke and there was zero evidence of bullets in the vehicle. I chalked it up to a freak accident- weird air pressure or something else that would never be determined.
Spark plugs are utilized to break windows.
Read up on it.
My hubby took a survival class..And we kept old spark plugs Incase we needed to escape our car..I'll let you consider some scenarios.
One jolt with a spider crack window...Shards galore..
I witnessed a rescue of a man who'd wrecked his pickup truck because a medical issue. The rescuers were having a devil of a time smashing the passenger window to get inside the locked truck, but one decent tap on the side cab window obliterated the glass. I learned to never sit near side back seat glass again, although it worked in the man's favor. Because they broke that glass so easily, they were able to perform CPR on the man and save him on scene.
We had a customer's car develop a big crack in the windshield while motionless, parked behind locked gates overnight. I own an automotive repair shop. Explaining to the owner that this is far from unheard of was a waste of breath. He will always believe that we were somehow negligent and caused it. Fecal matter occurs! I used to own a Honda Fit. Both the windshields on my Honda Fit and my wife's Fit cracked spontaneously, mine twice. I know a good auto glass company and got a wholesale rate of about $250 for new windshields installed, so still believe these cars are very practical.
Windshields are a type of safety glass that cracks when stress has to be relieved. The other glass on a car will suddenly break into a million little pebbles.
4) There has to be some kind of "Flawed Layering" in the glass where the Expansive Material Properties of one Layer causes extreme stresses to another layer[s], thus stress fracturing beyond a glass Ultimate Stress Point and then the glass explodes...
5) Or maybe there is a conspiracy to have glass shatter with a microwave pulse energy beam.
Sideglass in not layered; we'll have to go with number 5.
It's a vocabulary thing: The Windshield is the one the driver looks out of when looking in the forward direction. This one on most cars is a laminated structure comprised of two sheets with a resilient plastic layer between them. It is not uncommon for them to develop big cracks due to thermal or mechanical stress. Most recent cars these are glued in place but are not really structural. As the body or chassis flexes they are sometimes subject to forces that will make big crack.
The other windows are usually single piece tempered glass and are intended to break apart into very small, more or less rounded pellets when they break. A sharp impact from a pointed object or a high velocity small item can trigger the self destructing process.
"Sometimes STRESS just happens"
Yes. It was an Audi and it shattered while my father was driving and it was the rear right window by my brother. He is special needs and that affected him every time he would sit in the car after the incident. We don't know what was the cause, the window was closed.
Yes..my 1992 cheap azz Pontiac LeMans back hatch window popped and shattered when I turned on rear defroster one day. Scared the crap out me.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
