A 2kg piece of truck suspension smashed through the windscreen of car near Whangarei and landed in the passenger seat.
Nobody was injured and in a remarkable stroke of luck the woman's husband, supposed to be a passenger in the car had been running late and was not in the vehicle. The female driver heading towards Whangarei got the fright of her life when the metal bar came hurtling towards her about 7.50am yesterday.
The woman, the sole occupant in the car, was merging with other vehicles at the end of passing lanes on the brow of Smeaton Hill when a southbound truck passed in the opposite direction.
A 50cm piece of the leaf suspension had come loose from the truck and was thrown into the air.
Senior Constable Rob Dill-Russell said the woman swerved slightly and the piece of metal struck the windscreen and roof join on the passenger's side of the car and then smashed through the windscreen, landing on the passenger's seat where her husband would normally have been seated.
The driver was able to maintain control and pulled over in a safe place.
Mr Dill-Russell said the truck driver would not have known a portion of the spring had dislodged itself and had continued to travel south.
"This was a freak accident it is very unusual for a leaf spring to break. I have only come across it once before," Mr Dill-Russell said.
The woman was not injured but left very shaken by the incident. She was unable to say what type of truck it was.
Police yesterday contacted truck companies in the region to try and locate the truck involved and to warn drivers to check their vehicles.