HOUSTON -- For the second time this week, a piece of debris became a projectile and pierced a car's windshield as it traveled on a Houston-area highway, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.

Driver Stacy Dobbs was traveling eastbound on Highway 290 at West Little York shortly after noon when a 3-foot long metal pole, kicked up by an 18-wheeler, flew into her windshield, shattering it.

"There was no time to react," Dobbs told KPRC Local 2.

Her life was spared by just a few inches.

"I thought I would die," she said. "I shut my eyes and put my head down because I didn't know what was going to happen."

It landed inches from her head.

"I just felt all the glass all over me and was able to walk away from it," Dobbs said.

She said the pole looked like a missile, but she does not blame the big rig driver who accidentally launched it. She said the trucker apparently swerved to try and avoid it.

Dobbs, a mother of two, is thankful her children were not in the car.

"I feel very lucky today. It was not my day to die," she said.

She escaped with only minor cuts.

Insurance will cover the cost to repair the car, which was new.

On Monday, a woman was rushed to a hospital after she was struck by debris tossed by a lawnmower in northeast Houston. Investigators said the 41-year-old woman was driving south on the Hardy Toll Road when a lawnmower threw some debris into the air south of Interstate 45. The debris cracked the woman's windshield and struck her in the eye.

According to AAA, road debris causes approximately 25,000 accidents a year in North America. Between 80 and 90 of them are fatal.

AAA offered the following safety tips.

Make sure cargo is secure.
Allow four to five seconds between you and the vehicle in front of you.
Stay alert to what's coming up down the road.