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Monique of Avenel NJ (7/6/03):
On August 24, 2002 I leased a brand-new 2002 Honda Accord Coupe LX. I was so excited, but I didn't know what I was in for! I didn't have much to complain about except for a few creaks and rattles when going over bumps and cheap tires but besides that nothing major. That is until sometime in early April when I came home, parked my car, went in the house and took a nap. Three hours later I woke up to find my neighbors watching my rear windshield shattering into millions of pieces, although the glass itself was still in place. It hadn't fallen through yet.

There was no clear point of impact as if someone had intentionally damaged my vehicle, it was broken evenly across. However it appeared that the cracking could have started on the driver side of the window where one of the fuse boxes that controls the rear defrost is located. So I just figured maybe a rock hit it on my wy home and it took several hours for the cracking to occur and I just didn't notice it when I got out of the car and went into the house. I just took it as a loss and had my insurance company send someone to fix it. I thought that was the only time it would happen.

I was wrong.

On June 5, 2003 at about 7am I started my car and turned on my rear defrost because it was raining and my windows were foggy. Immediately after turning on my rear defrost I heard that oh too familiar cracking noise coming from the passenger side of my back windshield -- the same sound I heard the first time I came outside to find my windshield shattering on its own. So I turned it off and it stopped.

I figured it was in my head and it was just the raindrops hitting my car. I pulled out of my parking space and pulled around the corner when my rear windshield exploded, shooting glass so hard into my car that some of it flew under my seats! I slammed on my brakes and tried to get my composure and stop my hands from shaking. At first I thought someone put a bomb under my car but I realized that the loud explosion was from my rear windshield imploding. I went back into the house and called my insurance to come and fix the window because I need the car to get to work.

They were supposed to have someone out that day to fix it but because of their error(that's a whole other story) it didn't get fixed until the next day causing me to miss 2 days of work. I brought the car to a dealership not far from the one I brought it from to be examined. (I brought it there because they gave loaner cars and my dealership didn't). After having someone from corporate Honda come and examine my car which only included turning on the rear defrost, since both times I had the rear defrost on, which seems to possibly be the culprit. They also ran an "electrical test" whatever that means and found nothing.

So now I am still very much not comfortable driving my car and find myself constantly checking my back windshield while I am driving because I am terrified of this happening again, possibly on the highway. This has turned out to be a very traumatic experience for me...more than I thought it would be. If I had passengers in my car the second time they would have been severely injured with multiple cuts to the neck and face and luckily I do have photos that I took from both occurences to act as evidence.

Basically what they told me at the service department is that I have to wait for it to happen again for anything to really be done, especially since there were no injuries. But what about my lost time at work and the fear I live with everyday driving my car knowing that my rear windshield could explode again at any moment?

This is not as unusual as it might sound. Windshields are under quite a bit of pressure, just like their owners. Hot objects expand and it may be that the defroster heating the window pushes it over the edge. Some cars are more prone to this than others. There may be an oddity in the Accord Coupe or in Monique's particular car. Then again, it may be a coincidence it happened to her twice and it's quite possible it won't happen again.

She shouldn't be too worried. Safety glass is designed to break up into chunks rather than slivers. While it's unpleasant to pick your windshield bits out of your face (ask anyone who's done it), an exploding piece of safety glass generally doesn't cause severe harm to those nearby.

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