You can be cited for failure to secure a load. It comes with court costs and fines.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro Police shared two pictures of one of their officers’ cars, where the windshield was battered in. By what? Ice flying off another driver’s vehicle. In fact, two police vehicles were hit by flying ice. The other vehicle had damage to the bumper.
“On the highway because they’re going so fast and, uh, the vehicles heat up. And once that bottom layer gets heated up, it forces the ice to just fall right off. And a lot of times it’s huge sheets, and they go straight to the windshield, the front of the vehicle, and they just cause damage,” said Officer Tiffany Hooker, Greensboro Police Department, Traffic Safety Educator.
A Triad man sent in pictures of what happened to his work truck while he was driving on I-85 in Greensboro. Flying ice hit his truck, smashing the driver’s side of the windshield. Thankfully, he was okay and was able to get his truck to the side of the road safely.
“A lot of people have dash cams. If you’re able to get the recording from the dash cam, if you’re able to get the tag for the vehicle that it fell off of, that would be great as well, but we also want everybody to be safe. So if that can’t be done in a safe manner, then that’s something that we can work around,” said Hooker.
Drivers are urged to make a police report. That doesn’t always mean an officer will come out; many jurisdictions have an online system where you can report it, so you can use it for your insurance.
But don’t miss this: If officers see your car covered with snow and ice on the roof, back window, ready to fly off, they can give you a ticket for failing to secure a load. All of it can fly off and hit another vehicle. The ticket can lead to up to $2,000 in fines and court costs. It’s much cheaper to make sure all the snow and ice is off your car before driving.
WHAT ABOUT INSURANCE CLAIMS AND FLYING ICE?
“If it cracks your windshield, it’s gonna be a comprehensive claim. You know, part of humanity is to treat each other fairly. I don’t want you to be chasing down the semi to pull him off the road like that. That’s not safe. But your auto insurance coverage would pay that under a comprehensive claim,” said Christopher Cook, Alliance Insurance Services
That is, of course, if you have Comprehensive Coverage insurance. In North Carolina, Comprehensive Coverage isn’t required, but it pays to replace or repair your car if it is damaged in a non-accident, which includes ice, a deer or if a tree limb comes down on your car.
If you don’t have comprehensive coverage, you will pay for the repair out of pocket.
Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.