What just smashed through the windshield? For some, a scare. For others, death

You’re driving on the highway or soaring high over the city and something suddenly smashes through your windshield. Blood rushes down your face. You’re injured. Impaled. Nearly decapitated. Maybe dead.

What hit you?

Maybe a hunk of metal. Or a concrete load propelled from a truck. Or a dive-bombing vulture. Maybe even a hurtling turtle.

Driving or flying can be hazardous enough without the added danger of debris or wildlife coming through the window.

Here is a look through Miami Herald archives at some of the worst cases through the years.

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TURKEY VULTURE IN THE FACE

Published Feb. 17, 2009

A turkey vulture smashed through the windshield of a twin-engine prop plane shortly after takeoff Monday, forcing the pilot to return to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The pilot, who was flying solo, landed safely at the airport, though he suffered injuries to his head and face.

The incident is a reminder of the havoc birds can wreak on the airline industry.

Early last month, a bird brought down a Sikorsky helicopter, killing eight people in the Gulf of Mexico, according to investigators.

And Canadian geese last month reportedly struck the engines of a US Airways plane whose heroic pilot made a miraculous landing on the Hudson River, saving the lives of 155 crew members and passengers.

Monday’s episode took place about 600 feet in the air when the pilot of Air Flight Inc., a charter airline company, departed from the airport around noon. The pilot’s name was not released.

As the plane rose, the pilot reported seeing a flock of large turkey vultures ahead.

Moments later, a 20-pound bird smashed through the Cessna’s windshield, striking the pilot in the face.

The bird’s bloodied body stayed in place, impaled by the shattered windshield - which is made of polycarbonate plastic, a material often used for football helmets.

The pilot radioed in at 12:17 p.m., and firefighters rushed to the airport to await his landing, according to Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesman Mike Jachles.

“The pilot did a commendable job managing the incident,” Jachles said.

Lisa Donovan, co-owner of the charter company, said blood splattered all over the cockpit after the bird crashed through the plastic and hit the pilot’s head, cutting and bruising him.

Donovan said she later learned that several pilots had complained that turkey vultures and other birds had become a growing problem around the airport.

“They just hang around waiting for airplanes,” she said.

Donovan had little sympathy for the vulture.

“That’s what he gets for going through our windshield,” she joked.

METAL ROD IN THE STOMACH

Published Oct. 11, 2007

When the rescue workers arrived on the scene, they had little time to act.

First, using jacks and blocks, they had to steady the sport utility vehicle, which was tipped at a 45-degree angle. Next, they had to pull out the hydraulic cutters. Then, they had to slice the metal rod that had pierced a passenger’s stomach.

On Wednesday, Quincey Bennett was still recovering in the hospital one day after the accident in Oakland Park.

Sitting in the front passenger seat of a Ford Expedition, Bennett, 40, was struck in the right front hip and back with a chain-link fence rail Tuesday after the driver lost control of the vehicle and and ran off the road, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said. Smashing the window, the fence rail also penetrated the car seat.

The driver, Brenda Lee Bennett-Hallman, 45, was driving south in the 3700 block of Northwest 21st Avenue at 8:26 p.m. Tuesday when the accident happened.

Oakland Park Fire Rescue responded.

They checked on Bennett, who was conscious and alert. A man held her hand. The rail had penetrated her abdomen.

Rescue workers brought out hydraulic cutters to slice the pipe, which was 2½ inches in diameter. The cutters had to be held steady so they didn’t vibrate or generate heat or else they could damage the victim’s organs.

“She was very lucky,” said Capt. Gregg Pagliarulo of Oakland Park Fire Rescue. “The pipe went through a very lucky spot.”

The rescue workers cut the pipe six inches from her front and back and wrapped it in gauze. The piece of metal had to be removed at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, where she was flown by a BSO helicopter.

“Timing is everything,” Pagliarulo said. “You’re behind the ball when you have to take time to get them out of a vehicle.”

The rescue took 30 minutes from injury to evacuation. Bennett is expected to survive, BSO said.

Neither the driver nor the other passengers were seriously hurt. Four child passengers were taken to Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale as a precaution.

The driver, Bennett-Hallman of Weston, was driving with a suspended license, BSO said. Charges are pending.

Roadside impalements have happened before. In 1998, a 13-year-old girl was impaled by a three-foot steel rod that speared through the windshield of her family’s minivan and into her chest on Interstate 95 near Sunrise Boulevard..

DEADLY CHUNKS OF CONCRETE

Published Dec. 15, 2005

Large chunks of debris rained onto Interstate 595, killing one woman and hitting other cars, after a tractor-trailer toppled on its side Wednesday afternoon on a ramp overhead, officials said.

The driver of the truck lost control on a westbound ramp leading to Florida’s Turnpike from I-595, and the contents of the trailer he was hauling dropped onto the eastbound lanes of I-595, according to Lt. Roger Reyes, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol.

Jennifer Green, 49, of Margate was killed when debris fell from the bridge, smashing through the windshield of her green Dodge Caravan, Reyes said.

Her daughter, Latoya Green, 18, held a picture of her mother from last Christmas.

“She’s not going to be here for this Christmas,” she said.

Green’s husband, Lascelles Green, described his wife as a church leader who worked with youth at Royal Palm Seventh-day Adventist Church in Fort Lauderdale.

“It’s a big loss, I would say, for the world,” Green told Herald news partner WFOR CBS-4.

At the time of the crash, Jennifer Green was on her way to the airport to pick up a relative who was flying in from Jamaica, family members said.

“Everyone asks why,” her nephew, Lamar Bernard, said to CBS4.

“Maybe it’s an example for us all. Don’t regret what you have. You have a family friend who can be gone just like this.”

Earlier this year, four people were killed in a fiery wreck at a different point in the same interchange. The driver of a tanker, loaded with 9,000 gallons of fuel, lost control as he exited I-595 onto the Turnpike and flipped over on top of a car.

The tanker burst into flames.

All four people in the car were killed.

Witnesses told investigators after the Feb. 11 crash that the driver of the tanker was speeding as it approached the car on a tight turn on the 35-mph ramp.

On Wednesday, four other vehicles traveling on I-595 struck the debris that fell from the ramp, Reyes said.

None of the other drivers suffered serious injuries.

The driver of the overturned truck was not injured, Reyes said.

“The driver of the tractor-trailer lost control of the vehicle,” Reyes said. “The weight shifted, causing it to overturn and debris from the trailer fell onto the eastbound lanes of 595, colliding with numerous vehicles.”

Paul D. Stephen, 30, of Lauderhill, was driving the tractor-trailer, Reyes said.

The cab of the truck was registered to J&W Trucking, in Lauderhill.

An investigation will look into what caused the truck’s load to shift and whether speed was a factor in the accident, Reyes said.

When the truck turned over, pieces of wood, tree stumps, roofing material and other construction debris were dumped into the roadway, Reyes said.

Trucks carrying such debris have been a common sight in South Florida since Hurricane Wilma blew through more than seven weeks ago.

However, troopers said it was not clear late Wednesday whether the truck that crashed was carrying hurricane debris.

The accident forced troopers to shut down the eastbound lanes of I-595 and reroute cars trying to enter the Turnpike, bringing traffic to a standstill for part of the afternoon.

The debris had to be swept from the roadway before the thoroughfare could be reopened.

Tom Bedir was driving on I-595 when the truck overturned shortly before 1:30 p.m.

“It just flipped over from here and slides down,” said Bedir, of Fort Lauderdale. “All I see it’s coming down, and it’s on me.

“The car behind me got more damage.”

“All this garbage fell onto the highway,” Jose Iglesia said.

Iglesia saw the debris injure another driver.

REFRIGERATOR ON THE LOOSE

Published Feb. 29, 2004

A refrigerator tumbled off the back of a pickup truck and caused an accident on Interstate 595 on Saturday, just hours after dozens of steel rods fell from a vehicle and scattered across I-95.

The I-595 incident happened around 4:40 p.m. near University Drive. The driver of the car behind the pickup stopped suddenly in the middle of the highway to avoid hitting the refrigerator, and another car slammed into the back of it, said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Roger J. Reyes.

One person suffered minor injuries, Reyes said.

The incidents Saturday are two more in a series of accidents in which road debris played a major part.

In 1998, a metal rod pierced the chest of Stephanie Murray, then 13, after it crashed through the windshield of her family’s minivan on I-95 near Sunrise Boulevard. Stephanie survived after police drove the van to the hospital with the metal rod protruding through her chest.

More recent incidents involving road debris also caused severe injuries.

On Feb. 18, Mylady Soto, 26, was riding in a dump truck on the turnpike when she was hit by a large piece of concrete that shattered the truck’s windshield as it passed under the bridge at Commercial Boulevard.

On Tuesday, Claudia Avila, 42, was injured by a 35-pound piece of metal debris on I-95 in Delray Beach.

In Saturday’s accident, the driver of the pickup truck stopped and spoke with FHP officers. Reyes said he may have been cited for hauling an insecure load.

People driving south on I-95 had to deal with a different sort of debris: dozens of steel rods.

FHP officers cleaned up the rods, which did not cause any accidents or injuries, Reyes said.

RUSTY PIECE OF STEEL

Published Feb. 18, 2004

A Pompano Beach woman was critically injured when road debris crashed through her windshield on Interstate 95 in Delray Beach Tuesday afternoon.

It was a horrifying, random accident of the sort that had not been seen for a few years in South Florida but that once plagued the highways.

Tuesday, Paulo Velloso and Claudia Avila were driving south on Interstate 95 in Delray Beach when a thin metal square, about two feet by two feet, slid up the Toyota’s hood, smashed through the windshield and hit Avila’s head.

Velloso, the driver, was not hurt and stopped the car in the median. Avila was rushed to Delray Medical Center; rescuers found the rusty piece of steel, which weighed about 10 pounds, in the car’s back seat.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the origin of the metal, about 3/16 of an inch thick, was unclear. Investigators said it was possible a blue Nissan had hit the piece, sending it flying through the air.

“It’s obviously something we’ve dealt with before, but the size of it is unusual,” FHP Lt. Tim Frith told The Palm Beach Post. “I do not remember a situation in 22 years where this big of an object was kicked from the roadway.”

The scenario was all too familiar for Stephanie Murray. In 1998, she was 13, riding in her family’s minivan on I-95 near Sunrise Boulevard when a metal rod shot through the windshield and pierced her body, pinning her to the seat.

Murray recovered, and then devoted her time to cleaning up roads, getting a 911 cellular bill passed in the Florida Legislature and helping hospitalized children.

Tuesday, the University of Florida freshman said she had just returned from a trip to Tallahassee where she was working to get more money for trauma centers.

Murray, 19, said it was “tragic” to hear about someone else being injured by road debris. “I’ve never wanted anything like this to happen to anyone else,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to know that this is still going on.”

After the Murray incident, the Florida Department of Transportation started a task force to address the problem. Among the steps that came out of the task force:

* FDOT police officers taught their local colleagues how to enforce a state law requiring trucks to keep cargo secure.

* The Florida Highway Patrol began accepting calls about road debris. Motorists can reach the patrol by dialing *FHP from any cell phone.

* FDOT and police agencies organized checkpoints where they would look for, and pull over, trucks with loose loads.

* Road Rangers began looking for and picking up road debris in addition to other duties.

The department also has at least one crew assigned to pick up road debris every day. However, because Tuesday’s incident took place in a construction zone, debris found there would be the contractor’s responsibility, FDOT spokeswoman Sarah Peacock said.

Tuesday’s accident occurred near the end of a zone where workers are widening 95 from three to five lanes.

Peacock said she had little information about the incident. But based on the location and FHP’s description of the projectile, she didn’t think the debris came from the site. She said she couldn’t think of any object from the construction site that would meet FHP’s description of a two-foot metal square.

“I would be shocked to find out it was construction material for the roadway,” she said. “It just doesn’t sound plausible.”

Tuesday’s incident seems to mark the first time in several years in which a South Florida motorist was seriously injured by flying road debris. There have, however, been several serious accidents caused by drivers swerving to avoid debris.

In 2002, Jorge Arcas of Miami was killed while trying to avoid a table that had flown off of a truck on Interstate 595. Arcas’ Ford Explorer rolled several times; he broke his neck.

Tuesday night, neighbors of Avila and Velloso at Pebblewood Apartments in Pompano Beach were stunned to hear of the accident.

“That’s just awful,” said Stephanie Wallace, who said she did not know the pair well, but saw them often at the Publix where she works.

“They’re to themselves. They’re friendly, though,” Wallace said.

“I just hope she’s alright,” said neighbor Robin Rosen.

The woman’s ex-husband, Jorge Avila, said he had visited her at Delray Medical Center.

“She does not look good,” Avila told WFOR-CBS4. “She’s in a vegetative state, but she does not look good.”

ROAD DEBRIS DANGERS

Here are some accidents involving debris on South Florida highways:

* Jan. 30, 2001: A Coral Springs man was injured when a tire, loosened from a truck on I-95 in Boca Raton, flew over a six-foot dividing wall and hit his windshield.

* Nov. 14, 2000: A vehicle lost a ladder on I-95 in Boca Raton, causing a driver to swerve and crash into a semi-tractor trailer.

* May 10, 2000: A sheet of iron flew off a flatbed truck on Florida’s Turnpike and exploded through a motorist’s windshield. The metal nearly sliced the driver’s headrest in two.

* June 9, 1999: Metal debris smashed through a windshield, nearly impaling a man driving on I-95 in Broward. The driver was struck in the right shoulder by a two-footlong metal rod.

* May 3, 1999: A Davie man escaped serious injury when a metal, 13- to 16-inch reinforcing rod bounced off I-595 and into his windshield, tearing through the top of the driver’s car and missing the driver by inches.

* April 26, 1999: The owner of a limo service was speared through the arm when a metal rod flew through his window on eastbound I-595. The driver stopped and pulled the rod out of his arm.

* Nov. 15, 1999: A woman was killed on I-95 near Cypress Creek Road when a tow truck lost part of an axle that slammed into the windshield of her car.

NEAR DECAPITATION BY IRON SHEET

Pubished May 11, 2000

A sheet of iron flew off a flatbed truck Wednesday morning on Florida’s Turnpike and exploded through the windshield of a following motorist, who moved his head just enough to avoid decapitation.

The metal nearly sliced Yanier Torres’ headrest in two and came to rest on a child restraining seat where his daughter normally travels.

“He was very, very lucky,” said Lt. Ernesto Duarte, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. “It’s a miracle that he survived.”

Torres had taken his sister to work and was driving back home north on the turnpike about 9 a.m. when the metal crashed through his windshield - and almost took off his head.

Torres was directly behind a flatbed truck nearing the Kendall exit when a sheet of iron about three-quarters of an inch thick fell off, Duarte said.

“He sees an object fly off the rear of the truck, and before he had a chance to turn the wheel, he felt an explosion,” Duarte said. “It brushed up against his right shoulder.

“It happened so fast, the only thing he had a chance to do was move his head, and that saved his life.”

There was another stroke of luck: Torres had decided to leave his baby girl behind because she was still sleeping.

A witness was so moved by the scene that he exited the turnpike and circled back so he could give Torres a wooden crucifix he carried.

“He just felt it was a spiritual scene he had witnessed,” Duarte said.

The truck driver, however, never stopped. “Chances are that he was not even aware that this object fell off his truck,” Duarte said.

The wreck is the latest in more than a dozen accidents in the past two years involving road debris on Florida highways. The most infamous - which caused the state to crack down more urgently on road debris - involved an iron rod that impaled a 14-year-old Broward girl and pinned her to the passenger seat while her mother drove on Interstate 95.

To combat the debris, the FHP and state Department of Transportation have formed a task force that has officers looking for trucks with unsecured loads, Duarte said.

“We’ve taken this very seriously,” he said. “Individuals need to be accountable. Once you hurt somebody, once you kill somebody, you can’t just say, ‘I’m sorry.’ “

In a separate incident hours later, a construction truck on the connection between State Road 836 and State Road 826 lost some of the drywall it was carrying as it maneuvered around the curve. The truck could have turned over as well but was held up by the guardrail, Duarte said.

Traffic was diverted for more than an hour while DOT crews cleaned up the mess, he said.

The driver was ticketed for failure to maintain control of the load or not using due care, Duarte said. The company that loaded the material, Seaboard Marine at the Port of Miami, will also get charged.

“The DOT will send the company a bill for the cleanup.”

FLYING TIRE VS. A JOGGER

Published May 24, 2016

A woman is in serious condition after she was hit by a flying tire while jogging along the Rickenbacker Causeway early Monday morning.

Just after 7:30 a.m., a tractor-trailer heading west on the causeway lost two of its right rear tires. One tire rolled into a Hobie Beach parking lot and the second tire bounced across several traffic lanes.

The tire eventually hit a couple jogging on a sidewalk on the eastbound side of the causeway.

Capt. Ignatius Carroll, a spokesman for Miami Fire Rescue, said that because the tire rim came off the truck, as well, the two were struck by more than 200 pounds of weight.

The couple were separately identified as Stephanie Hilzinger and her fiancé, Fernando Muñoz.

“It’s really amazing that no other vehicles or other people were struck by this tire,” Carroll said.

Hilzinger, who took the brunt of the tire’s impact, was unconscious until Muñoz, a doctor, began CPR. She was taken to Ryder Trauma in serious condition. Muñoz was also taken to the hospital for scrapes and bruises.

Carroll said the fire department has never dealt with a situation like this before.

“You would never think that a tire would come off and strike you from behind,” he said. “It’s a freak accident.”

The tractor-trailer was eventually flagged down by another driver farther down the highway.

The driver of the truck, identified by Miami Herald news partner CBS4 as Angelio Salazar, said he had no idea he had lost two tires from his rig.

“I feel terrible,” he said.

FATAL FLYING TRUCK AXLE

Published Nov. 16, 1999

In what may be the first South Florida fatality caused by road debris, a woman was killed on Interstate 95 Monday when a truck axle flew over the median and slammed into her car.

The woman, whom authorities had not identified late Monday, died on the southbound lanes of I-95 near Cypress Creek Road in Broward County. At about 7:30 p.m., a tow truck heading north on the interstate lost part of its rear axle and “dual wheels.” The large piece of metal went spiraling over the five-foot concrete divider and smashed into the woman’s green, four-door Ford Taurus, Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Bobby Collins said.

The Taurus continued down the expressway and careened into the concrete divider, FHP troopers said. The tow truck that lost its axle did not stop and continued about a mile north on I-95 then, stopped, the FHP said. As troopers closed off the scene and paramedics stood by in the southbound lanes, the tow truck with rear damage was put up on blocks about a mile away. The disabled truck had Bob’s Towing painted on its doors. It was missing both its left rear dual wheels and its axle. FHP troopers confirmed it was the tow truck involved.

Kathleen Ertresvaag, of Fort Lauderdale, was driving south when she saw the debris come barreling over the divider.

“She was driving in the HOV lane, when I saw a large, smoking piece of metal come flying across the median,” Ertresvaag said. “It hit the car next to me and crushed the windshield.

“That lady’s car hooked onto mine, I hit the brakes, and her car kept on going.”

This is the only latest in a recent string of accidents involving debris on local expressways.

A string of road debris incidents began gaining attention dating back to the violent impalement of then 13-year-old Stephanie Murray on June 4, 1998.

Many vividly remember when Stephanie was impaled and pinned to her seat as she rode in her mother’s van on Interstate 95. The rod pierced Stephanie’s chest, just inches from her heart. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital.

The spate of accidents involving flying debris turned at least one victim into a crusader for safer roads.

Stephanie and her parents have become outspoken advocates for safer, debris-free roads in South Florida.

They traveled to the state Capitol in March to support a bill that would tax cellular phones to help pay for new technology to pinpoint the location of 911 emergency calls made from cell phones. The bill recently passed both houses.

NOT A BIRD

Published May 17, 1999

It looked like a rock, or perhaps even a bird. But it was a five-pound chunk of steel that came crashing through the window of a 1984 Chevrolet Sierra Classic pickup into Debra Tejeda’s face.

The road debris incident Sunday morning - the third in Broward County in the past month - left the pregnant woman bruised, a little bloody and very angry.

“This is happening to too many people,” Tejeda said. “What are they waiting for to start cleaning up the roads?”

Tejeda, 37, her husband, Jose Hernandez, 41, and their son Michael were seated in the front of their pickup headed north on Interstate 95 near Sheridan Street about 11 a.m. Sunday when the car in front of them hit an inch-thick piece of debris. The impact sent the debris spinning toward the Hialeah family’s truck.

“I saw it coming - I thought it was a bird,” said 10-year-old Michael, who was seated between his parents. “I felt glass all over myself and thought, ‘Uh-oh.’ “

Hernandez, who was driving, said he saw the steel coming but didn’t realize it was headed right toward his windshield.

“I saw an object flying real quick by me,” Hernandez said. “I didn’t expect it to fly though my windshield. Then I saw a hole in the windshield and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, that thing is inside!’ I looked at her and saw blood. It was incredible.”

The chunk of steel first hit the visor that shades the outside of the truck’s windshield. That, along with a thick tint on the windshield, slowed it down. But it pierced the windshield, and came to rest between mother and child.

The steel hit the left side of Tejeda’s jaw and struck her shoulder. A small cut on her jaw bled, leaving it swollen.

“If the rearview mirror had not deflected it, it would have hit her in the face,” said Capt. Norm Rechtman of Hollywood Fire Rescue.

Tejeda was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood for treatment. She was discharged Sunday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.

“Mainly, to tell you the truth, I know the Lord was with me,” Tejeda said. “It could have hit my stomach, and I’m pregnant. It could have hit my son or my unborn baby.”

Tejeda and her husband spent Sunday afternoon taking Polaroid snapshots of the truck and talking about their brush with danger.

“What makes me angriest is that we pay so much taxes. Instead of paying to keep criminals in jail, they should have them out there cleaning,” she said. “There’s no need for this. Are they waiting for someone to die? They’ll probably be out there cleaning tomorrow. The next day, forget it, it’ll be the same thing again.”

Tejeda was the third victim of flying road debris in the past month.

On May 3, a Davie resident narrowly escaped injury when a 13-inch piece of metal tore through the top of his Mitsubishi Eclipse while he was driving on Interstate 595. A week earlier, a 59-year-old man driving on I-595 was speared through the arm by a metal rod that smashed through his car window.

In the best-known case of injury caused by road debris, 13-year-old Stephanie Murray was literally pinned to her seat last June when a metal rod came flying through the windshield as her family drove on Interstate 95. She was hospitalized for two weeks.

The Florida Highway Patrol is not sure how to combat the recent rise in the number of incidents, Lt. Pembroke Burrows said.

“One of the biggest problems is the volume of traffic, trying to catch people who have unsecured loads on their vehicles,” he said.

FROZEN TURKEY MISSILES

Published April 1, 1998

Two frozen turkeys launched from a crashing pickup turned into missiles Tuesday, creating a pileup of swerving rush-hour motorists in Northwest Miami-Dade, police said.

The pickup was traveling about 55 mph along Northwest 62nd Street about 8 a.m. when it allegedly ran a red light at the 27th Avenue intersection.

“He never applied his brakes,” said Lena Jean-Baptiste, a Miami-Dade public service aide who investigated the accident. “He ran straight through.”

The pickup hit a Volkswagen Jetta going north on 27th Avenue, spinning it into the intersection under the Metrorail tracks. The pickup then went through the intersection, hitting a Nissan Altima traveling southbound.

That’s when the turkeys flew out of the back of the pickup.

One of the frozen birds hit the windshield of an older-model Nissan behind the Altima. The turkey then bounced into another windshield on a Cavalier convertible in the next lane.

“You can tell where the turkeys landed,” Jean-Baptiste said.

The driver of the convertible tried to make an evasive move, but instead pinned another pickup against one of Metrorail’s concrete pillars.

“They never saw him coming,” Jean-Baptiste said. “He [the pickup driver] never stopped. No warning, nothing.”

The pickup driver is being charged with running a red light. He was listed in serious condition, she said.

“Other than that, they’re all OK,” Jean-Baptiste said.

The driver of the Jetta, who is nine months pregnant, was taken to North Shore Medical Center for observation, Jean-Baptiste said. The others were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital with a variety of injuries, including facial cuts and scratches, she said.

Jean-Baptiste said she could not release names of those involved until families were notified.

IMPALED

Published June 7, 1998

Two days after being impaled by a three-foot steel rod that pierced her chest just inches from her heart, Stephanie Murray met with members of her class in a hospital reunion.

Several students from Stephanie’s seventh-grade class at Crystal Lakes Middle School in unincorporated North Broward visited her Saturday.

The students were only able to stay for a few minutes because Stephanie is still weak.

“She’s a little stronger today,” James Murray said of his 13-year-old daughter, who was rushed to Broward General Medical Center Thursday night after being impaled by the rod while riding south on Interstate 95.

“She’s not fully alert but she opens her eyes,” he said.

Stephanie, groggy from the medications that help ease her pain, had a few words for her parents, her father said.

“I’m happy to be alive,” her father quoted her as saying as she placed her hand over the wound in her chest.

It will be a few days before she is transferred from the intensive care unit to a room. She was in serious but stable condition late Saturday.

If all goes well, doctors expect Stephanie to go home next weekend, hospital spokesman Chuck Malkus said.

And she’ll make the trip in a new minivan.

Touched by the teen’s strength, Phil Smith, a Fort Lauderdale Toyota dealer and family friend, gave the family a new minivan Saturday.

“When I heard about what happened it just put a hurt in my heart,” Smith said.

James Murray fought back tears as he was given the car keys.

Smith said his dealership had taken the payment book to the damaged $30,000 van and thrown it away and made a gift of the new one.

“She couldn’t get back in that van again,” Murray said.

Along with the physical scars there are emotional ones.

“I don’t think this has really struck her yet,” her father said. “We’ll talk about it and help her.”

Stephanie’s mother, Denise Murray, was driving the family’s week-old Toyota Sienna minivan when a smooth rod pierced the windshield near Sunrise Boulevard.

Investigators say the metal rod is a construction tool and must have been dropped on the highway. They think it might have been kicked up by another vehicle.

Doctors have credited Denise Murray’s quick thinking with helping to save her daughter’s life: She told her 11-year-old son, Sean, to call 911 from the car phone while she inspected the wound and urged her daughter not to move.

They also praised firefighters, police and paramedics for driving the van to the hospital instead of trying to free the girl at a gas station at Sunrise Boulevard and Powerline Road.

The rod was cut outside the hospital emergency room and Stephanie was freed from the seat. Inside the hospital, the rod was pulled out by hand, leaving two holes that will eventually close by themselves.

All that was accomplished partly because of the teen’s demeanor, rescuers said.

Despite being in pain, Stephanie remained calm.

“She’s very lucky,” Malkus said. “She’s just beginning to turn a corner.”

BUZZARD SPLATTERS PILOT

Published Nov. 6, 1987

A five- or six-pound buzzard played chicken Thursday morning during rush hour with the traffic helicopter used by WJNO and WRMF radio. The buzzard lost.

The buzzard crashed through the copter’s front windshield and was splattered across the pilot and traffic reporter Paul Cavenaugh. Neither man was hurt.

“He (pilot Sandy Stadt) was trying to evade the birds,” Cavenaugh said. “This sucker just turned around and aimed right at us. That was it. The bird made a fatal mistake.”

The copter was near Palm Beach International Airport, heading to check out an accident on Military Trail and 45th Street at 8:40 a.m. when Stadt spotted the flock of birds, Cavenaugh said. The pilot landed at the airport shortly after the collision.

“It was a scary experience,” Cavenaugh said. “It was one of those things where the first words out of your mouth were ‘Oh, s --t!’ “

Randy Rogers, the helicopter’s owner, said the copter suffered $5,000 damage and would be out of commission for about a week.

Cavenaugh said he has had enough fowl for the month: “I’m not planning on having turkey for Thanksgiving.”

He took off Thursday afternoon for the next traffic report in a rented helicopter.

STEEL DISK HITS DRIVER’S HEAD

Published July 9, 1986

A Cooper City woman on her way to an anniversary lunch with her husband was critically injured Tuesday when a 130-pound steel disk the size of a manhole cover flipped up off Flamingo Road, crashed through her windshield and hit her in the head.

The disk’s impact was so strong that it tore back part of the car’s roof, Miramar police officer Bruce Keesling said. It landed in the car’s back seat.

Unharmed, the woman’s 11-year-old daughter grabbed the steering wheel and guided the car for half a mile, bumping the car into a canal-side guardrail until it stopped, her father said.

Virginia Duke, 45, a substitute teacher for Broward County schools, was airlifted to Memorial Hospital in Hollywood after the 11:45 a.m. accident, said Miramar Fire Rescue Lt. Jim Schendel. She was listed in critical condition with severe head injuries.

Virginia’s husband of 19 years said doctors told him his wife’s chances weren’t good. She went through six hours of surgery late Tuesday and was listed in critical condition late Tuesday.

Virginia Duke and her daughter, Neah, were on their way to meet Duke at the Control Data in Miami Lakes, where he is computer service manager. They planned to go out to lunch, Duke said.

Miramar police did not know late Tuesday how the disk - a device called a jack plate, used to help balance construction cranes on the ground - got into the middle of the southbound lane of Flamingo Road just north of Miramar Parkway. Nor did they know exactly how it ended up smashing into Duke’s blue 1986 Subaru.

A witness driving in front of the Dukes told police he saw the disk on the road, but swerved to avoid hitting it, Keesling said.

The disk narrowly missed Neah, who along with her mother was strapped into her seat, Schendel said. The daughter may have saved the car from plunging through a guardrail and into a canal.

“She actually steered the car to a stop,” her father said. “She steered it into the guardrail.”