OREANDA-NEWS. If your windshield gets chipped or cracked, should you repair or replace it? If you drive with a chip or cracked windshield long enough, that if can become a when.

Regardless of where you live, your windshield may take a beating. There could be pea gravel falling from uncovered construction trucks, sanitation vehicles laying down salt and sand when the weather calls for it, and the occasional chunk of unknown debris kicked up by cars passing by. I once had a pigeon fatally misjudge the 18-wheeler I was following under an overpass and fall onto my windshield. I thought my whole windshield was going to come down on me.

It’s amazing that windshields survive as long as they do.

An aside, the leading vehicle’s tire doesn’t “throw” objects toward your car, even though it sure feels that way. Instead, the vehicle just tosses it up in the air and you run into it at whatever speed you’re traveling. As I learned while working for a major tire company, when the tire touches the pavement the relative speed of the tread to the road is zero, so it can’t exert any rearward force to a rock. It didn’t make any sense when I first heard it either, but I have it on good authority that it’s accurate.