as if things aren't hard enough right now

[Dichotomy]

Happened too me once. sitting at a traffic light in a company Sable wagon when the rear window just shattered. Scared the livin piss outta me.

literally?

[whiteman]

Friends back window blew out for no reason while they were standing next to it. **it happens

[Jayhawk]

My old roommate had a big glass mug sitting on his trunk, he went to open his trunk and the mug wedged between the back window and the trunk.  Back window shattered, mug was unscathed. 

[F22RaptorDude]

I think the cold season needs to end honestly

[Dichotomy]

I got three days off of work this week.  That's great.. but I have cabin fever BIG TIME right now.  I can't even get my car out of the freakin driveway.  AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

[Jayhawk]

I got three days off of work this week.  That's great.. but I have cabin fever BIG TIME right now.  I can't even get my car out of the freakin driveway.  AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

Need to borrow a shovel? 

[Dichotomy]

That would have come in dang handy before the sun went down

[Jayhawk]

That would have come in dang handy before the sun went down

Need to borrow a light? 

[Dichotomy]

 

NO!!!!

I'll hire a service if I'm desperate

I have supplies

[Strip]

A boss/owner that I worked for at one point did not believe that spark plug porcelain would crack a window. All be damned if we didn't bet him on it and after we stopped laughing he ended up buying a piece of glass.

Strip

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Glass can have huge stresses embedded to it if post-heating in fabrication process goes wrong. It's literally a timebomb waiting to go bang.

Another reason to cause unseen hidden stresses is a mistake done in gluing process. In the old days windshields were attached by a slotted rubber band that elastically fixed the glass to the frame. Nowadays the windshield is actually an important part in supporting the body and it's glued directly to the frame. If the gluing goes wrong the glass is left with internal stresses and again bang by surprise. Heat changes can trigger this or if extra stress is added in form of lifting / possibly slightly bending the frame.

[Dichotomy]

Design flaw or poor installation? 

[Bino]

...
I used to work as a tour guide/sales person in an art glass factory. Every blue moon I would get a call from a customer who claimed that the vase they bought 20 years ago suddenly exploded for no reason.  At first I was skeptical, but after talking to the chemist I learned that if the glass wasn't annealed properly stress in the glass could cause it to shatter after a random time interval. I've also witnessed a piece of glass explode on they way to the annealing lehr. My wife, who also worked there, was hit by hot glass when a piece exploded in the middle of the production process
...

An friend of mine is an artist who sometimes works in glass.  She has had a couple of her works break due to improper annealing.