The errant, disembodied base of an office chair smashed into the windshield of a car along I-15 in Lehi, Utah. A family of five had gone out for tacos on the weekend only to be met by the spinning metal base of the chair, hurtling through the air like an overgrown ninja star. The incident was captured by the dash cam of the Eaton family car, the make and model of which is unclear.
If I had to guess, I’d say it was a Nissan or Infiniti vehicle given the layout of the dashboard, but that’s neither here nor there. The important thing is the family was safe following the crash, and that the flying metal object didn’t cause a bigger accident as the Eatons traveled along the interstate at highway speeds.
Lily Eaton was in the second row seated behind her mother, Lea, who was driving at the time. Her older sister, Anabella, was in the front passenger seat when disaster struck; Anabella literally had a front row seat to the action, since the office chair base crashed into the passenger side of the front windshield, as a KSL news report shows:
During an interview with KSL reporters, Lily Eaton went on to say the metal base “…was just something flying towards us,” and adds that the realization suddenly dawned on the family, “Oh, that’s going to hit us!” The incident was over as quickly as it took the metal object to cross two lanes, skipping over another vehicle on the interstate, and finally smashing into the Eatons’ car.
The family believes the debris may have crashed into their car after falling off a pickup truck, though it’s possible it was some other kind of vehicle carrying a load that was not properly secured. The base of the office chair had no wheels, nor was it attached to the rest of the office chair. The Eatons say the metal base was run over by an unsuspecting vehicle, which sent the base flying through the air, and finally into their cabin — if momentarily.
One of the spokes on the office chair base managed to break through the windshield, but it’s unclear if the base was impaled in the glass for long. All in all, the glass held up well to the assault. Windscreens on modern cars tend to use tempered or laminated glass to make them shatterproof, and that seems to have stopped further damage to the vehicle. In the footage, we hear Anabelle repeat, “…I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.” She suffered only minor cuts, and no one else was hurt. The Eaton family car is currently having its windshield replaced.