HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — It was a close call for a driver on Beltway 8 after a 9-inch piece of rebar came flying through her windshield. Amanda Kilian is thankful she's alive to tell her story.
She was driving to Bush Intercontinental Airport to pick up her mother when it happened.
"I saw it coming, and then an explosion," Kilian said. "It absolutely shook me to my core."
She thought she'd been shot at.
"I was hysterical," Kilian said. "It sprayed glass everywhere, all over my face, and my whole car was covered in glass."
Kilian decided not to pull over on the busy highway.
"I was shaking the whole way home," she said.
It wasn't until she got back that she found what had actually come flying into her car. The heavy metal rod came out of nowhere.
"It went through like butter, hit the seat, bounced off, and hit me in the leg," Kilian said.
Her dog, Beau, usually rides in the passenger seat.
"He sits like a human right in that front seat," Kilian said.
But not on that day. Call it luck or divine intervention, but Kilian knows how lucky she was. She's grateful that her drive to the airport didn't turn deadly.
"I lived through 'Final Destination' because if it would've come through the driver's side, it would have impaled me, and I wouldn't be talking to you right now," Kilian said.
It's the second time she's had a close call with flying debris on a Houston highway. Kilian said she's a bit traumatized to get back on the freeways, but said if you live in Houston, you really have no choice.