Close encounter with mower blade on freeway

2 years ago 360

PLANO, Texas (CBSDEFW.COM) – A Plano couple’s harrowing experience raises new concerns and questions about the build up of debris alongside area freeways.

It was a trip down LBJ Freeway that Lauren Drum will never forget.

“This little car in front of us just happen to run over what we thought was just a piece of plastic in the road,” said Lauren Drum of Plano.

That piece of plastic was actually a sharp metal mower blade that crashed through the windshield of the Plano woman’s SUV that her husband was driving.

“We saw it pop up I kind of ducked a little bit and I just blew through the windshield,” she said. “I instinctively kind of went like this and it went over the seat and to the side and hit the window.”

Once inside, the blade ricocheted off windows out of control.

Lauren and her husband say they had no time to react and were lucky to survive.

“I ended up having only a little piece of glass hit my arm,” she said.

CBS 11 News has recently documented the build of debris on area freeways that a McKinney city councilman referred to as driving junkyards.

TxDOT has admitted it has had problems getting it cleared because of issues with contractors but sent us photos of a cleanup in March.

As for the mower blade on I-635 that came close to becoming a deadly weapon, Lauren Drum plans to keep it as a reminder of how fragile life can be.

“We had talked about framing it or putting it in a shadowbox or something it’s kind of an interesting relic of what could’ve happened and to be thankful,” she said.

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The Drum’s did not file a police report so there’s really no record of how often this is happening unless someone is seriously injured or killed.