Jaime Turner was driving his sedan home on Stoney Trail three weeks ago when he heard what he thought to be a gunshot.

He was trying to pass an uncovered gravel truck. Suddenly, glass was crashing down all around him.

“I didn’t see anything fly off the truck and hit me. The first thing I heard was a big bang,” said Turner, a Bell field representative who drives frequently for work.

Police are cracking down on uncovered loads to prevent these types of incidents.

Turner says it was cloudy but not raining on June 4, when he was heading east on Stoney Trail around 2:45 p.m., approaching the Sarcee Trail exit. Driving behind a convoy of about six gravel trucks in the passing lane, Turner said he decided to pass them because his wife once had a stone fall on the hood of her car. He had almost passed one truck in the middle lane when his Toyota Avalon’s sunroof exploded.

With a glass shard in his arm, he looked up to see pieces dangling from his sunroof, which only had an inch-thick border left. Turner made his way over to the right shoulder and stopped. He didn’t get a company name or licence plate number, as he was focused on getting to safety as calmly as possible.

Turner’s vehicle was riddled with dents “essentially similar to hail damage,” requiring 90 per cent of the car’s panels to be removed and repainted. The sunroof will be replaced, and seats will be removed to make sure all the glass has been vacuumed.

He believes something fell off the truck and hit him, but he didn’t see anything and motorists around him didn’t stop.

“I’m not gonna say I’m emotionally scarred for life, but I did take the next day off work,” he said, adding that he now slows down if he sees large trucks, rather than passing them.

Turner’s insurance company suggested he would’ve known more if he had a dashboard camera, and wanted him to pay the $1,500 sunroof repair because he didn’t have glass coverage. After some terse negotiations, he managed to whittle it down to a $500 deductible on an estimated $6,000 repair. His rental car is also covered for the repair’s duration, 20 to 30 days.

Turner’s sunroof shattered less than two weeks after a three-day Calgary Police Service blitz to prevent these sort of incidents. After multiple complaints about unsecured loads, police held an information and ticketing session at the Spyhill Landfill, just three kilometres from Turner’s incident.

Drivers can face a $500 fine for carrying a load without a tarp. Allowing loose materials to fly off a vehicle yields a $150 fine, while an insecure load means a $345 fine.

On the May 25 weekend, police stopped more than 700 vehicles, issuing 133 warnings — mostly for people who had covered their loads but not with tarps — and nine violation tickets, according to acting Sgt. Travis Juska with District 7 in north Calgary.

“Think of the inconvenience this has caused this gentleman, and the emotional trauma of going through that, and it would have been something as simple as someone tarping their load,” said Sgt. Juska.

He says most Calgarians safely secure their load when driving, but if drivers see an insecure load they should contact police at 403-266-1234, or call 911 if there’s an immediate safety issue.