What causes a windscreen to break ?

What causes a windscreen to break?

The causes of windscreen impacts vary from country to country. In Switzerland, which is a country with little crime and relatively few clumsy people (I'll come back to this...), it is most often natural causes or disasters that are the cause of a breakage of glass on the car window.

A natural cause ?

A natural cause? Yes, most often it is a stone thrown at the windscreen of the car in front of you that causes the damage. This is the cause of approximately 80% of all damage to car windows, whether they are side windows, rear windscreens, front windscreens or panoramic roofs.

We don't necessarily realise it, but the windscreen of our vehicle suffers a lot of "invisible damage", whether it's insects or gravel thrown up by other cars. In fact, if you look closely at the windscreens, they all have small impact marks. But sometimes the stone is a bit bigger and/or hits the windscreen at a certain angle and with a certain force to create a "real" damage and scratch or break the laminated glass or other types of glazing... Fortunately, one call is all it takes to make an appointment with us and one of our technicians will come to your home to replace the window or repair the glass breakage. 

The unnatural causes

There are two unnatural causes: the first is crime or vandalism. What an unpleasant surprise to find your car with a broken window and possibly discover that there has been a successful or unsuccessful theft attempt. For safety reasons, most side windows break on impact due to the toughened glass, and as well as having no window left, you usually end up with a mountain of glass inside the car.

The last unnatural cause is each of us, in a moment of lack of concentration or clumsiness: a trunk that we close without thinking or skis that stick out, or furniture that we bought in a famous Swedish shop that is badly fixed and that goes against the windscreen at the first braking.

Natural causes

As for natural causes, there are many types of weather conditions, some of which are more popular than others (depending on where you stand). Hail, frost, thermal shock are all risks that we face every day without being able to do anything about it except contact Swissautoglass for a change of windscreen and other car windows. 

There are many causes for an impact on a windscreen or side/rear windows. The most important thing is to have it repaired or replaced quickly to avoid any unfortunate complications. How can I avoid an impact on my windscreen? 

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