strange car accident

yesterday i was driving back to church after lunch. my car (the subaru) was full w/four of our church staff. we were on highway 80 & it was really windy. the car in front of us ran over what looked like a huge piece of cardboard, which was kicked up into the air & landed right onto my windshield. whatever it was that hit us was very heavy & very hard. it cracked the whole front windshield & glass fragments were all over us in the front seat. but luckily the cracked windshield held up & did not cave in on us. later one of the pastors who was sitting in the back said that the sound was so loud that he thought it was a gunshot. when i got out of the car to see the damage, it was even worse than i expected. the front bumper was smashed, one of the lights was hanging by its wires, the hood was dented, even the roof was dented, & the top of the trunk was scratched up. everyone kept saying that we were lucky that no one died. we are lucky that no one got hurt. it was our senior pastor who was sitting in the passenger seat. i really do believe that God protected us. as i saw the accident happening i kept saying to myself, "don't swerve & don't jam the brakes". obviously that would have caused an even bigger accident.

when i called 911 to ask them to clear the highway, they had the state police call me back. both 911 & the state police kept referring to that large & heavy-filled piece of cardboard as "debris". how can they call it "debris" when i explained that it was half the size of my car. anyways i'm obviously bummed that my car is smashed up for no reason. but i am grateful that no one got hurt. it's strange when things like this happen, you can never settle on a good explanation of why.

warning: when it's windy, be careful of large flying pieces of "debris"

on a serious note, it is sad that people die every winter from pieces of of ice flying off of cars on the highway.