A woman was hospitalized Friday with non-life-threatening injuries after a tire iron came through the windshield of her Subaru while she was driving northbound on Interstate 95 in Peabody, Massachusetts. The strike happened around 12 p.m. and forced a lane closure while crews cleared the scene.
Massachusetts State Police initially reported that a tire and a metal object roughly the size of a household screw had gone through the windshield, according to CBS Boston. After gathering new information at the scene, investigators amended that account, determining the object was actually a tire iron that struck the woman as it tore through the glass. Scene photos showed the damage concentrated on the passenger side of the windshield. It remains unknown whether anyone else in the vehicle was hurt, and the identity or origin of the vehicle the tire iron came from has not been determined.
Lane Closure Cleared Within the Hour
The right lane of I-95 was shut down in Peabody, located about 20 miles from Boston, while crews cleaned up the area. All lanes had reopened by 12:50 p.m. Friday, the same report noted. The woman was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Identifying the source vehicle after such an incident is often difficult for investigators without dashcam footage or eyewitnesses, a challenge underscored in the case. Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 85, Section 36, vehicles must be loaded and constructed so that cargo or loose materials cannot escape onto the roadway, and violators face fines between $50 and $200, according to the Massachusetts Legislature.
A Familiar Hazard on This Stretch of Highway
Friday's incident is not the first time flying debris has turned dangerous along this North Shore corridor of I-95. In August 2018, a runaway tire detached from a vehicle and crashed through a female motorist's windshield in neighboring Lynnfield, according to footage from WBZ-TV. And in July 2014, an ax fell from a landscaper's dump truck on I-95 in Topsfield and smashed through a trailing vehicle's windshield; state police cited the truck driver, a Peabody resident, with a $200 fine for failing to secure his cargo, per FOX6 News Milwaukee.
The stretch of I-95 running roughly 26 miles from Route 128 in Peabody north to the New Hampshire border carries an annual average daily traffic volume exceeding 95,000 vehicles, per MassDOT data, a volume that raises both the odds of a debris strike and the likelihood of traffic backups once one occurs.
Why Interstate Speeds Make Debris So Dangerous
Nationally, the numbers back up what North Shore drivers have experienced firsthand. Road debris crashes are roughly four times more likely on interstate highways than on other roads, largely because higher speeds make it easier for cargo to spill or components to detach, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Researchers with the foundation also found that roughly two-thirds of debris-related crashes stem from unsecured cargo or poor vehicle maintenance rather than natural road hazards.
Between 2018 and 2023, road debris contributed to 319,724 crashes nationwide, causing 32,802 injuries and 433 deaths, an AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study found. Separately, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data compiled in 2026 shows that crashes involving objects and unsecured loads cause an average of 730 deaths and 17,000 injuries every year, a toll highlighted by Keep America Beautiful during National Secure Your Load Day awareness efforts. The group's 2026 National Litter Study also estimated that unsecured loads generate about 454 million pieces of roadway litter and debris annually across the country.
Traffic safety officials caution that swerving to avoid an object in the road carries its own risks — nearly 37 percent of deaths in debris crashes result from drivers losing control after swerving, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. As of Friday afternoon, the source of the tire iron that struck the Peabody driver's windshield remained unknown.
