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1-Year-Old Child Nearly Impaled in Vermont Highway Incident

A piece of rebar dislodged from a container a the truck and flew forward, like a spear

Vermont State Police investigated a scary close call in Colchester, when a piece of flying construction material smashed through a car’s rear window and nearly impaled a one-year-old child inside.

This happened on Interstate 89 North Wednesday evening.

State police said a pickup truck from a construction firm had to slam on its brakes to avoid a crash.

When it did so, a piece of rebar dislodged from a container on the truck and flew forward, like a spear.

Police said that metal smashed through the window of a Subaru in front of the pickup truck, and ended up inside a child’s car safety seat.

Miraculously, the rebar missed the one-year-old strapped into the seat in the Subaru, driven by Brenton Elliott of Milford, Connecticut.

While there were no apparent injuries, the child was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

“It did leave that trough in a rapid manner, fast enough to go ahead and actually penetrate through the vehicle, through a headrest and stop at a child's seat, roughly about three inches from the child’s head,” Lt. Bob Lucas of Vermont State Police said of the flying piece of rebar.

The construction firm, S.D. Ireland, said it is very happy no one was injured.

The company told necn affiliate NBC 5 News that the rebar was stored using industry standards, and that the pickup’s driver, Christopher Larose of Swanton, was operating the pickup truck alertly and in a safe manner.

Still, the company is pledging to re-evaluate and re-design its rebar containers.

S.D. Ireland was issued a civil ticket, state police said.

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