Unexplained Glass Shattering (Car Windows, etc.)

[phgnome]

My boyfriend and I were talking and it came up that when we were kids, a back window of a stationwagon broke on us. It happened to us in separate years. In both instances, we were on board the back of the stationwagon. For both of us, it was blue and was used to transport kids to and from places in school. These were not fleet vehicles -- they were owned by parents of other kids at the school. In both cases, all the glass broke inwards at us. That moment startled me and I was 4 at the time. The back door had not quite closed yet -- the driver was closing it for us and there was a loud bang and all the glass came flying inwards. There was no force that broke the window -- it just "exploded" inwards on its own.

Does anyone know of a design flaw that caused this? Has this happened to other people? And why does the glass fly inwards?

 

[Anonymous]

And why does the glass fly inwards?

Gravity !

windows can break for a number of reasons - often, if the glass has a flaw, heat can cause the glass to break (as has happenned recently to my front windscreen).

Stress can also cause windows to break.

It makes sense that if the window breaks, then gravity will force the glass into the interior of the car.

many people have found to their cost that defrosting windscreens with water from the kettle will often cause the windscreen to crack as the glass can't handle the sudden change in temperature.

I don't think there is anything particularly sinister about this - it is just a broken window.

However, the DVLA, stopped issuing licence plates with the number 666 some years ago after a series of disturbing accidents involving cars with 666 in the number.

Paul

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Re: Has a stationwagon window broken on you?

However, the DVLA, stopped issuing licence plates with the number 666 some years ago after a series of disturbing accidents involving cars with 666 in the number.

Paul

what accidents ?

I heard it was due to complaints and over-reactions from religious people.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

On the eve of my driving test, I hired my instructor for most of the
afternoon for last minute practice around the streets of my North
Wales University town.

We paused in a backstreet as he gave me some advice about three-
point turns or whatever. Suddenly, the car, a Mini, was rocked as
if by an impact and the driver's window exploded into the car.

Luckily the window had been wound down to below face height and
the little cubes of toughened glass landed harmlessly on my shoulder
and below. My instructor was not the calmest of people and he
insisted we kept our heads down, convinced we were being shot at.

Eventually we dared to get out and look around but the street was
deserted. I came to the conclusion that it must have been a temperature
change, even though it was a day of steady sunshine.

Not a station wagon fault, but a maybe a more general phenomenon?

 

[Anonymous]

Last year we had exactly the same thing happen to our shower door - My wife had showered, closed the door, and was standing in the en-suite bathroom when the door literally exploded sending lumps of 'safety' glass all over the place.

When I mentioned this to a plumber, he said that he has worked on a few houses when they have heard a 'bang' and the shower door has exploded in exactly the same way - once when there was no-one in the room !

Seems more and more like a fault in the glass.

I put some security film on my office windows a couple of months back - you know the sort that also reflects light and turns the window into a one-way mirror.

The following day, one of the windows developed a long crack - almost certainly because the reflective foil had caused a dramatic temperature change in the glass which affected a fault in this one pane of glass.

 

[Anonymous]

Didn't Fort write about "Phantom Snipers" as a group of uncatchables in one of his books? I think it included a case where a windshield shattered and sent a car plunging into a ditch, if memory serves.

 

[TVgeek]

Brad Steiger spent a lot of time researching and writing about the Phantom Sniper phenomenon. IIRC it was usually car windows rather than buildings, and the shattering "travelled" over the southwestern US before jumping the Atlantic to the UK.

One eyewitness said the glass bubbled and appeared to melt
in the area of impact before the windshield shattered.

No clue as to what could cause that!

TVgeek