Northern California authorities say a driver is lucky to be alive after a large metal beam pierced the windshield of his SUV while on a San Jose freeway.
San Jose Fire Department Capt. Christopher Salcido says the beam fell off of a flatbed truck, crashing through the windshield and lodging itself into the driver’s seat of the BMW.
The driver, 66-year-old Don Lee of San Jose, California, suffered a small scratch to his right arm.
Both vehicles were traveling at 60 mph when the incident occurred around noon Friday on I-280.
Twenty-two-year-old Javier Zambrano of Los Banos was driving the Ford flatbed truck carrying the beam. California Highway Patrol spokesman Ross Lee says Zambrano will be cited for spilling a load once the investigation is complete.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
That’s not a ‘beam’. At best, it is a rather flimsy ‘channel’ or ‘chute’, not a structural thingie.
How about a flimsy beam? It would kill ya!
CNN called it a “ramp.”
I tend to believe that the tie downs which probably made of chains, should had been done differently. Attached to the flat bed trailer, with stronger chains.
Chains are only useful if you’ve got something to hook them to. Metal against metal, they could slide. That’s why most tie-downs are nylon and/or polyester. My guess is either it was in a bundle with some other long metal (and didn’t have a tie-down pressing directly against it) or it had enough of an edge to wear through a worn tie-down.
Straight out of Dirty Harry.