September 13, 2000 was supposed to be a joyous day for me as I was returning back home to Dallas from Joplin Missouri after presenting my daughter with her college graduation gift of a brand new car. While driving back from Joplin in my Mercedes going 55 mph following my husband who was driving back my daughters old car, a very loud gunshot noise went off which sounded like a bomb, distracting me. That spooked the living hell out of me causing me to swerve in my lane thinking that I hit something only to be followed by my entire retractable glass roof top exploding and falling down with shards of glass cutting me.

It was a bright and sunny day - I want to say close to 80 something - and I had my AC blowing in the car and unfortunately I had the mesh screen drawn back. When the gunshot noise went off it literally scared the living crap out of me. I didn’t know what happened - I thought someone was shooting at me. I thought I hit something because it almost felt like someone fell out of the sky and landed on the car when the gunshot went off - it was like the pressure just hit me. You could feel it, you could hear it, and when the glass came landing down on me and around me in the car I started screaming and panicking because I did not know what happened. I thought I hit something, I thought someone hit me, I had no clue as to what was going on other than trying to regain my composure so I did not crash on the highway driving at 55 mph.

There was an 18 wheeler tractor trailer that was to the right of me so I naturally assumed something fell off of his car and landed on the top of my car busting the glass and I try to speed up to indicate to him that something happened for him to pull over but that seemed to get the trucker mad and he swerved his truck towards me causing me to almost fall into the grass median that separated the north and southbound traffic. I didn’t spit up more honking my horn and had to put down the driver side window so that I could point out at the top of the car to get his attention which he didn’t realize something happened and he finally slow down and pulled over to the shoulder. My husband look back and realize something was wrong and immediately got onto the shoulder in reverse back to where I was but thank God he called 911 first. When My Husband ❤️ backed up to where I was I was in the car holding my steering wheel screaming and yelling and panicking and he jumped out and asked if I was OK I had no idea because I still was trying to process what happened and I was crying and I was trying to dust the glass off of me without realizing that I was digging the shards of glass into my skin even deeper causing numerous paper cut like incisions throughout my entire body. They were on my shoulders, my neck, my arms - it was glass all in my hair and when my husband open the door glass just came falling out when I got out the car. I was panicking and did not realize I was walking into the highway where the cars were passing by at high speeds. My husband had to grab me and pull me back and turned me around and that’s when I finally seen the car for the first time with a gaping hole in all of the glass in the car in my food realizing it was in my hair on my body everywhere.

The truck driver got out and my husband and he proceeded to get into an argument which almost turned into a fight with a trucker with back and got a knife but thank God the police arrived. They inspected his entire load to ensure it was tarp down then they inspected my car to see what debris would’ve been in the car that could’ve caused the accident they stop the traffic to check the roads for any falling debris they found absolutely nothing they took a police report from both me and the trucker. Then one more police officer arrived on the scene and seen what happened and look at the damage on the rooftop of my car and immediately advised me to contact Mercedes because they have a non-product defect on shattering glass rooftops - if there’s too much heat with the cold air combined the pressure can become too great and if the glass rooftop is not engineer in design precisely it will break under the pressure of the stress because it’s not made with laminate like the front window shield. I was in total disbelief that Mercedes could put out a product like that knowing that this could be a dangerous situation for the consumers of their vehicles that have retractable glass roof top or Mont Rose. This is unacceptable if Mercedes is completely aware of this.

But I am not the first person to report this - I am now getting numerous phone calls from other consumers that are experiencing the same exact thing and Mercedes is aware of it. When I took my car to the Mercedes dealership to demand an explanation they quickly try to shut me up and contain me so that other consumers could not hear me ranting. I purposely parked the crashed rooftop car in the front of the dealership so other consumers can see it ask me questions of which I gladly advised them so that they did not experience what I had to go through or anyone else that had to deal with this. Mercedes at first did not want to help me said they had no loaners and could not fix it and told me that rock did that the damage and the way the damage results it is the same in every case and everybody is saying the same thing that they heard a loud gunshot like sound that almost replicated a bomb affect. Fortunately they had their mesh screens drawn up in but mine was back.

Mercedes Benz is too high brand of a luxury auto maker to come up with excuses on it’s a design defect and we’re not really responsible, but it is their design it is their product and it is their business partners that they have made agreements with to build certain parts and customize the car that represents Mercedes. Finding out that auto makers care more about the cheaper of the cost whether it will be cheaper to fix the defect or cheaper to pay out the deaths or injury as a result of a defect is unacceptable. We have families and loved ones that need us we have a right to know if we are driving a defective vehicle or a vehicle that can cause serious hazard harm to us or someone else Mercedes-Benz needs to be held accountable for their actions this is not a one off situation and has happened on numerous occasions as far back as 2015 and are still occurring to this day and Mercedes has not recall this product as of yet or advise any of the customers that buy this car about this potential hazard. So what will it take - numerous deaths before they are forced to do something? I think our lives made a lot more than that.

I have an existing heart condition and have congestive heart failure or I currently have a mechanical valve one of the main things I have been instructed to do is to try to live a stress free life what do you think I did when my entire glass roof top came crashing down on me while I’m doing 55 mph where I thought a gun was shot at me where is sound like a bomb exploded what do you think an average person is going to do they are going to panic they are going to be scared they are going to be traumatized they are going to be out of their mind crazy and trying to make sure that they keep themselves safe as well as others while they’re in their panic mode my panic led to a possible horrific event that could’ve been worse than what it was thank God it was recorded and that the police did arrive in time but who’s to say that somebody else will be as fortunate. The lawyers said the same because I didn’t die because I don’t have a number of medical expenses from it but I can’t do anything and I’m not the only one and we are not gonna sit here and allow Mercedes to do this to other people. Please stand with me and fight against Mercedes knowing that they have a product defect that needs to be recorded and must be recalled. It must be fixed - they should not put peoples lives at risk.