Police have released the name of the motorist killed on Thursday when an unidentified object bounced up from the Queen Elizabeth Way and smashed through his car’s windshield.

Miguel Pena, 43, of Mississauga was the lone occupant of a Toyota RAV4 that was going westbound on the QEW at Mississauga Rd. at about 8 a.m. when the bizarre mishap occurred.

On Friday, neighbours stopped by Pena’s home, a brick townhouse in a quiet Mississauga neighbourhood, to offer condolences to his wife, Sofia.

“I know you’re strong. I’m here, okay?” Yani Nurachmin said as she hugged the grieving woman at the front door.

Nurachmin has lived next door to the couple, whom she calls her “best friends,” for four years. Pena, a Web developer, was a hardworking man and a loving father, she said. The couple has a son.

Sofia Pena declined to speak to the Star.

Elsa Llovera, a neighbour, said Pena always greeted her even though they have a language barrier. “A good man,” she said.

Sgt. Dave Woodford said Ontario Provincial Police have the object, which measures about 30 centimetres long and 30 centimetres wide, in their possession.

He would not discuss the weight or shape of the object, or release any other details, saying police didn’t want to potentially taint witness’ accounts.

“We’ve been getting quite a few calls from witnesses so we are not going to release what the object is,” Woodford said.

The object pierced the windshield of the silver Toyota RAV4. The vehicle then bounced off the centre median, veered across three right lanes, the shoulder and through a treed field. The vehicle hit a tree, a highway sign and then a fence.

The object was found inside the vehicle and an autopsy has indicated that Pena died on impact with the object.

“We don’t know where (the object) came from,” Woodford said. “It is every motorist’s worst fear. You can’t prepare for something like that.”

There was no overpass in the area, so the object didn’t come from a great height.

Police don’t know if the object had been lying on the roadway and then somehow bounced up, or whether it came flying off a truck, hit the pavement and bounced through the windshield.

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Fatalities from heavy objects on the QEW are rare, but not unheard of.

In another bizarre case three years ago, an Oakville man died and four people were injured after a truck’s trailer detached from a Hwy. 427 ramp, burst through a guardrail and plunged 20 metres onto the QEW just as the morning rush began.