Seeing a broken window in your car isn’t just intimidating; it’s flat out inconvenient, frustrating, and for some people, stress-inducing. Being an experienced auto glass repair and replacement service provider, we know that handling a broken vehicle window can be puzzling and overwhelming—but don’t fear! We are sharing here what you should do to securely and calmly handle the situation. Keep this quick guide in mind should you or a loved one ever see shattered auto glass in your car.
1. Contact Police and Your Insurance Company
If you can see that someone has broken into your car, don’t touch or change anything until you call law enforcement and they’ve recorded the scene. Whether the local police would travel to the site or ask you to communicate information over the phone is based on each agency’s policies, therefore, the first call should be made to the local police station.
If you must explain the situation via telephone, don’t forget to take some photos of the site with your cell phone to give to your insurance company as proof of the incident. After you’re done with conversing with the law enforcement, contact your insurance provider for a claim filing.
2. Safely Eliminate Broken Glass
If your car is parked in a parking lot, make sure to inform someone inside the nearby building who can clean up the broken glass from the pavement. You would also need to cautiously remove any broken glass from the car’s interior surfaces so that you can securely drive home or to the auto glass repair shop. If you have the choice, your safest and best bet is to contact a reliable mobile auto glass repair company, like us, who can cater to you at the site and take care of the broken window.
Once you reach home, remove residues, if any, of the glass shards using a high-powered vacuum from the interior of the vehicle. If you are taking your car for auto glass replacement or repair, we would likely vacuum it again, so no need to worry about missing pieces here and there—if they don’t affect your safety, of course!
3. Protect Your Window Opening
If you are unable to get your auto glass repaired or replaced instantly, it is recommended to cover the window opening to shield yourself while driving. Here’s how you can do it properly:
- Wear strong work gloves to defend your hands from glass shards
- Gently remove any glass shards still attached to a window frame.
- Use your vacuum cleaner to eliminate any stray glass pieces from the window frame and inside the window seal.
- Clean the window with a damp cloth. Make sure you removed all dirt and dust, so you can firmly attach a plastic window covering using tape.
- Then cover window from the inside, with a transparent or glowing piece of plastic. Make sure to stretch the plastic taught before locking the plastic to the window with several long pieces of masking tape. Don’t use other tape kinds since the adhesive may damage your car’s paint.
- Add another layer of plastic to a window’s exterior, if required.
Keep in mind that using plastic to cover the window is only a short-term solution. You must never drive with plastic on the window for longer than a day or two as it’s a safety hazard and may prevent you from watching the traffic around you.
Contact us for immediate window and auto glass repair service.
