It started as a routine unit for Komal Syed.
“I went to 403 from Winston Churchill,” the Mississauga resident told CTV News Toronto. “I only had two … outings to take.”
It was just before 11am on Monday and Syed was going on a date. He says he noticed a white sedan pulling into the lane in front of him, which caused him to slow down. It was then that he noticed that there was something strange in the car.
“The bumper started to move. And I said, okay, it looks like its bumper has come off. And the next thing I hear: a shock.”
That crash was not caused by a bumper, but by a shovel that flew through the windshield a few inches from his face.
“Honestly, I don’t know where the shovel came from,” Syed said. “From what I remember, the bumper was moving. It looked like the bumper was coming out, but it wasn’t. In the end, what was in my car was a shovel.”
Syed says that at this point he managed to stay relatively calm.
“I turned around and saw that shovel on the windshield and I realized that, okay, that’s pretty big,” she said with a slight laugh. “I mean, obviously I yelled and I should have panicked, but luckily I didn’t deviate.”
Syed threw himself on the side of the road and examined the damage. A video of the cell phone he made at the time shows the extent of the damage. He said he didn’t even realize it was covered in broken glass until a crane driver who had stopped to help pointed it out.
Although he now tells the story with a nervous laugh, he says he didn’t realize until much later how different the incident could have been if the shovel had hit the windshield in a different place.
“The next day, when I shared it, and I was repeating what happened, that’s when I was surprised I could have been anywhere.”
Syed says he drove down the same route the next morning to deter any fears he might have about safety. And she says she has a message for other road drivers in the hope that others won’t have to go through what she has.
“If someone goes on the highway with tools or equipment, make sure they’re well insured. Because that’s how … so scary.”