RANDLEMAN NC– Ward Transport, a trucking company with an office in Charlotte probably had a very strange conversation with their insurance company last week after a fish fell from the sky and smashed into the windshield of one of their trucks.
On the afternoon of April 14th, Barry Poff, who has 34 years and more than 3 million miles under his belt had just finished a delivery in Randleman and was heading South on I-73/74 to his next delivery. As he crossed the Randleman Lake bridge a bird flew in front of the truck and dropped a rather large fish which smacked right into the truck’s windshield.
“I saw the bird carrying the fish and thought wow that’s neat, and just then the fish hit the windshield. Said Poff. “It just happened in a split second, the bird was so low, and think he realized if I don’t release this fish I’m going to get hit by this truck”.
According to the dash-cam, the truck was going 63 mph at the time it was hit by the falling fish. The impact damaged the windshield and hit with enough force to knock the EZPass transponder off. Thankfully the fish did not penetrate the glass and Poff was not injured. Poff credits remaining calm and not swerving on his years on the road and his experience as a drag car driver.
Poff was able to safely pull over after the bridge. “I was just stunned when it happened. A fish just hit my windshield, how am I going to explain this, and then I remembered the camera.” Poff said he called the trucking company and told them “you’re not going to believe what just happened.”
The trucking company Ward Transport posted the video to Twitter the same day.
As for this fish, “I walked back down the bridge to see if I could find the fish, I thought I need to mount that.” Poff told a reporter. He was able to find the fish (a 2.5 to 3 lbs wide-mouth bass), but no word on if he got it mounted or not. Ward Transport was able to send out a second truck so Poff could finish his route.
The incident has since gone viral with WRAL, Charlotte Observer, CBS News, Newsflare, The Weather Channel, Weather Nation all reaching out the to company on Twitter to ask if they could share the video. WFMY News 2 met up with Poff for an interview. “Every day I check the views on YouTube and I just can’t believe it,” said Poff.