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ELK GROVE, California (KOVR) — A routine drive home on Highway 99 turned into a frightening ordeal for an Elk Grove family when a large metal bolt crashed through the windshield of their minivan, narrowly missing their 12-year-old daughter.
This happened somewhere between 12th Street and 47th Avenue; the driver was so flustered during the incident, they can’t pinpoint exactly where it happened.
With three kids in the car, it was a close call. The family says they are grateful no one was seriously hurt.
“I was driving, and all of a sudden heard a boom sound,” said Gulnaz Siddiqui, the driver and mother
The bolt flew into the passenger-side windshield, where Siddiqui’s 12-year-old daughter, Aisha, was sitting. The impact shattered the glass, sending fragments across the front seat.
“Then there was glass all over her,” Siddiqui said.
Aisha said she was stunned in the moments after the impact.
“I didn’t really know what happened for a few seconds,” she said. “This just came, and I felt like something exploded in the car.”
The bolt lodged into the glass just inches from Aisha’s face. This was her first time riding in the front seat.
“I just screamed,” Aisha said.
Siddiqui said her first concern was making sure her daughter wasn’t seriously hurt.
“I looked at her and I was like, OK, she’s not injured. There’s no bleeding, nothing,” Siddiqui said. “Then there was all this glass on her and in her shoes too.”
With nowhere to safely pull over immediately, Siddiqui continued driving until she could stop and assess the damage. During that time, Aisha kept her eyes closed.
The family said it’s unclear where the bolt came from. Siddiqui believes it may have been kicked up from the roadway by a vehicle traveling ahead of them. She said she was following a passenger car, not a truck, at the time.
“Just watch out. Be safe on 99, of course, because there’s a lot of construction going around,” Siddiqui said.
Mohammed Kazi, Aisha’s father, said the experience left the family shaken.
“These things you can never expect. It can happen to anyone,” Kazi said. “It happened to us. Luckily, no one was that badly injured. They have a shock, a trauma.”
Although no one suffered serious injuries, the family said the frightening experience will stay with them. Aisha said she plans to wear her eyeglasses whenever she’s in a vehicle as an added layer of protection.
The family is also asking anyone who may have witnessed the incident or captured it on a dash camera to come forward with video that could help determine where the bolt came from.
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