Saint John woman angry after ice from transport slams car

A Saint John woman is angry and feels lucky to be alive after her car was slammed by a large sheet of ice that flew off the roof of a truck's trailer on Monday near Petersville Hill.

Susan Kuehnel​, 51, was driving her 18-year-old daughter to Fredericton on Route 7 when they met a tractor-trailer unit on a two-lane section of road on the Saint John side of the Petersville Hill.

Kuehnel said it was a clear day and she was driving around 100 km/h and she estimated the truck's speed at 140 km/h.

Before she met the truck, a sheet of ice she estimates at three metres by 2.4 metres and 15 centimetres thick came flying toward her.

"The sheet of ice reached me before he passed me," said Kuehnel​.

"It was spinning like a Frisbee."

The sheet of ice shattered the driver's side windshield ofKuehnel​'s car and left her with a bloodied face.

"It looks worse than it is," she said.

"They didn't need stitches or anything. I just got really lucky."

"In the ambulance, the paramedic who was with me, she was really angry," said Kuehnel​.

"One of the first scenes she had been on was exactly that — ice coming off a transport through a person's windshield — except that person was partially decapitated and rolled and died."

"So … really lucky."

The truck did not stop at the scene.

"I think he saw it, because the Frisbee-type of effect coming at me, it gained momentum and it hit me before he passed," said Kuehnel.

"I think he would have seen it flying. I think he just didn't dare stop."

The incident left Kuehnel​ angry.

"I'm not just saying this because of what's happened to me, but I've never not been behind vehicles and kind of felt angry that they haven't cleared the ice off," she said.

"I just wish people would think twice," she said.

"I think that they should get fines and pulled over if they are not clear on top of their rig."