A Canton Township man is grateful to be alive after a harrowing experience that left his windshield shattered on a metro Detroit freeway on Friday, Aug. 7.
Tony Boehm, 39, was driving his 2025 Toyota Tacoma north on Interstate 275 between Ford and Michigan Avenue around 6:30 a.m. when he saw what he initially thought was a tire coming apart on a truck ahead of him. m
“There was a bunch of dirt hitting the road, so I thought maybe he lost a tire,” Boehm said. “So I switched over a lane and started letting off the accelerator just to kind of see what he was doing, let things level out.”
A video from Boehm’s dashcam shows the situation escalate quickly: debris spills from the trailer of what appeared to be a debris hauler and a large piece – of something
– flies high into the air before crashing into his windshield.
He never saw it coming.
“I've watched the video probably a hundred times, and it looks like it was either a chunk of wood or a chunk of metal,” he said. “As loud as it impacted, I couldn't really tell. I didn't even see it until I watched the video.”
Boehm was in the vehicle with a coworker he regularly drives to work. Neither was injured, he said, but the impact shattered the windshield and sent glass into the cab.
'What just happened'
“It was very much a ‘holy crap, what just happened’ moment,” he said, noting the truck continued north and did not stop, so he wasn’t able to get a license plate number, company name or other identifying information.
"I find it really hard to believe (the truck driver) didn't know what was happening," he said.
He pulled onto the shoulder, turned on his hazard lights and got out of the truck to collect himself, then carefully drove the car to his job at Gordon Chevrolet in Garden City, where he works as a service adviser.
“I was really shaken up when it first happened,” he said. “My initial reaction was to call my boss and let him know my coworker and I were going to be late.”
Boehm later contacted Michigan State Police and said he was told there was little investigators could immediately do, since he did not obtain information from the truck.
He posted the video on Facebook in hopes another driver might have seen the truck or captured its license plate.
Why the investigation will be rough
Michigan State Police Spl. Lt. Tyhrann Howard II agreed investigating the incident after the fact would be difficult without information to identify the truck.
Generally, he said troopers can investigate incidents involving debris or objects striking vehicles using information provided by the driver, including video that could help identify the vehicle involved.
“If there’s any information that can be utilized to investigate where this or what caused this, or they can get any information from that video pertaining to that truck, it’s going to be investigated,” Howard said.
Meanwhile, Howard advised drivers whose vehicles are damaged by roadway debris or another vehicle to pull over safely and call police.
“Anytime you’re faced with any type of damage to your vehicle from the roadway or from other cars, stay where you are, pull over to the right of the freeway or the right of the roadway and contact the police immediately,” Howard said.
Boehm said the experience was particularly unsettling because a friend was killed in a similar incident several years ago, driving on Interstate 94 when a tire came off a vehicle, crossed the median and went through his windshield.
That memory immediately brought Boehm’s thoughts to his own children, ages 10 and 13.
“The only thing I can think is my children almost ended up fatherless this morning,” he said.
Boehm said he was heading home later Friday morning to wash the glass off himself and give both of his children “a gigantic hug.”
“But by the grace of God, I am still here, and I am praising his glory this morning,” he said.
Anyone with information about the incident can call Michigan State Police at 734-287-5000.
Contact reporter Laura Colvin: lcolvin@hometownlife.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Canton man recounts terrifying moment debris hit windshield on I-275
