Driving With a Cracked Windshield

You're driving down the interstate with your hands at nine and three (because ten and two is no longer safe). You adjusted your mirrors before you hit the road, you're following the posted speed limit, your seatbelt is safely buckled, you have a car's length of distance for every ten miles per hour between you and the vehicle in front of you, and you have your phone safely tucked away in the middle console so you can focus on driving without being distracted. You feel as though you should be the poster child for how people should drive, and that you would be the clear choice for safe driver of the year if there were such an award.

But then a giant dump truck hauling a load of gravel blows past you, and despite your safe driving habits, a loose rock finds its way out of the truck and smokes your windshield. You're unsure whether the deafening smack was the rock hitting your windshield or the sound of your heart breaking, but either way, you now have a dime sized crack in the glass.

It's a frustrating truth that no amount of safe driving can prevent a crack in your windshield. Sure, you can try and keep your distance from construction trucks, but sometimes there's just no avoiding misfortune. A cracked windshield can come from a wayward spray of gravel, an especially girthy hailstone, or any number of hard and fast traveling objects.

While there are a number of things that can crack your windshield, the course of action remains the same. You need to get it fixed. Driving with a cracked or chipped windshield can be costly, dangerous, and sometimes illegal.

A small chip or crack might seem insignificant, but if you don't fix that chip or crack immediately, that small problem could turn into a big one. Pot holes or bumps in the road can cause that minor windshield damage to turn into major damage. This means that the longer you drive with a damaged windshield, the more it could cost you.

A cracked windshield is a weakened windshield. No, your windshield won't shatter if you hit a big bug, but if you were to get in an accident, a cracked windshield is less likely to stay intact than a windshield without a crack. A crack across your windshield can also obstruct your view of the road, making it easier for you to get in a wreck.

Since driving with a damaged windshield is potentially dangerous, you could get pulled over and ticketed for having a chipped or cracked windshield. So the next time you notice a little chip in the glass, go ahead and get it fixed. It just makes sense.