'Get this stuff off your car': Flying ice hits Lexington fire chief and other Massachusetts drivers
LEXINGTON - Getting around New England Friday after a messy winter storm was not easy.
Multiple drivers reported getting hit by snow and ice flying off cars that were not properly cleared off before leaving home. There weren't any reports of injuries, but the damage to their cars was significant.
The Lexington Fire Department sent a reminder to drivers to scrape off their entire cars in order to protect others on the road. It was personal for Fire Chief Derek Sencabaugh, who was on his way to work when a sheet of ice came flying off the hood of a car ahead of him.
"This was a significant hit. It was like a stack of wood coming on - it made a loud noise," he recalled. "The sheer size of it caught my eye."
The frightening ordeal happened on Route 128 near Burlington. He said he swerved quickly so the ice didn't smash into the driver's side.
"I was in awe almost of the magnitude of the force that it hit through the windshield," the chief said.
Another man was shaken up and had to pull over at a rest stop in Lexington after ice and snow smashed into his windshield.
"It was just frustrating. The person's snow came off and initially hit underneath the front of a truck. The second time it came and hit my windshield," he said.
Sencabaugh says it's critical that drivers clear off all the ice and snow from their vehicles, not just the hood and windshield, but on the roof as well.
"It really is important to get this stuff off your car," he said. "Because you're not going to hurt necessarily yourself. Your unintended consequences are you're potentially going to hurt or seriously injure someone behind you."
