Driving with a cracked windscreen
Many people see replacing their cracked windscreen as a cost they can put off and risk it out on the roads, hoping to avoid the police. There is, however, a very good reason you risk a traffic fine when driving around with a crack in your windscreen and – just as with many rules of the road like wearing seatbelts or keeping the speed limit – it is to protect you and your fellow road users.
Visibility of your surroundings
Having anything on your windscreen is going to impair your ability to clearly see your surroundings as you drive. A crack can create a blind spot, or at the very least make it hard to identify dangers as quickly as you might with an unharmed windscreen. The jagged and random shape of a crack can be a disorientating obstruction to have across your field of vision, robbing you valuable fractions of seconds in reaction time that could mean the difference between a scare and a serious accident.
Integrity of vehicles structure
The windows of your car do more than just keep out the elements. The windshield of a modern day car is attached with an adhesive that bonds it with the body of the car, giving it a big role in the integrity of the structure of the car’s roof – placed as high as 60% by some manufacturers. A crack in the windscreen necessarily weakens this structure and puts you at a higher risk of a collapsed roof if your car rolls.
Cracked windscreen in an accident
If you are in a serious accident with a cracked windscreen you are only increasing your chance of getting injured. The windscreen offers a barrier of protection against your body leaving the vehicle if your seatbelt fails, or more importantly anything else flying through the window. A windscreen weakened by a crack will hold up a less firm resistance. Cracked windows have also been shown to make deployed passenger side airbags less effective, as they use the windscreen as a backstop. With a weakened windscreen the airbag may break through the other side of the window and inflate there, leaving the passenger with little or no protection.
In Australia there is an average of 1,640 reported car accidents every day. You want your car to give you every possible chance to avoid being part of that statistic or walk away unharmed if you are. So if there is a crack in your windscreen get the best car windscreen replacement Perth has to offer.
