A Rock Hit the Windshield on I-77. Now What?

In the first hour

1. Keep driving if you can see clearly. A chip outside your line of sight is not a reason to stop on the shoulder of a busy interstate. Take the next exit if you want to look.
2. Look at the damage once parked. Note its size and whether it is a chip, a star or a crack, and whether it is near the edge of the glass.
3. Keep it clean and dry. A piece of clear tape over a chip keeps dirt and water out until it is repaired.
4. Go easy on the glass. Do not point the defroster straight at it on full, do not slam the doors and avoid rough roads.
5. Book it soon. A clean, fresh chip is the easiest kind to fill.

What North Carolina law says about loose loads

North Carolina’s G.S. 20-116(g) says no vehicle may be driven on a highway unless it is loaded so that none of its load can fall, blow, drop, sift, leak or otherwise escape. For trucks over 7,500 pounds carrying rock, gravel or stone, it goes further: the load must sit six inches below the walls of the truck bed and be securely covered by a tarp or another suitable cover.

That law is why most gravel trucks on I-77 are tarped. It does not stop every stone, though. A pebble caught in a tire tread, grit on the road surface or debris from a work zone can all be flung into the car behind. Following at a longer distance behind trucks and open trailers gives a stone more time to fall before it reaches you.

Can the truck’s owner be made to pay?

Only in rare cases. You would need to show that the stone came from a particular truck and that the truck or its load broke the rules, which is hard to do at highway speed with traffic all around. Most drivers claim under their own comprehensive coverage instead, or pay for a repair themselves.

How the cost is usually handled

In North Carolina, glass breakage normally falls under comprehensive coverage. The NC Department of Insurance lists ‘Missiles or falling objects’ and ‘Breakage of glass’ among the losses Other Than Collision coverage pays for, less any deductible. North Carolina has no law that waives the deductible for glass, so unless your policy includes full glass coverage, the deductible applies. A chip repair may cost less than the deductible, so compare the two before you claim.

A comprehensive glass claim is not an at-fault accident, so it does not add Safe Driver Incentive Plan points. The NCDOI does note that many insurers look at how often you file claims, at fault or not. And you choose who does the work: under G.S. 58-3-180 a policy must allow the claimant to select the repair service, and the insurer pays the same amount either way.

Repair or replace?

ROLAGS, the windshield repair standard, says stone breaks up to two inches across and single line cracks up to 14 inches are repairable, though damage at the edge or right in front of the driver usually means a new windshield. A fresh I-77 chip is very often a repair job, and it can be done where you park: see mobile windshield repair in Charlotte. If the chip has already run into a long crack, mobile windshield replacement in Charlotte explains the visit, including calibration of the forward camera on newer cars.

Along the corridor

The mobile service covers the towns along this stretch of interstate: windshield replacement in Huntersville at exits 23 and 25, Cornelius auto glass at Catawba Avenue and Davidson at Griffith Street, and windshield replacement in Mooresville beyond the causeway.

Questions drivers ask