Saskatoon man recovering after axe flies through windshield

Mackenzie Peddle doesn’t remember the axe hitting his face, but the photo evidence is hard to deny: A shattered windshield with a gaping hole, an axe he had never seen before sitting in his truck and blood all over his face and his seats.

The electrician was on his way home to Saskatoon from Yorkton, travelling along Highway 16 on May 16, when the axe apparently went through his windshield.

“I don’t remember it happening,” Peddle told 650 CKOM

He said he believes he passed out after somehow managing to pull over to the side of the highway. He said he came-to with his foot on the brake the truck still in gear when a passerby approached his vehicle.

Mackenzie Peddle received a cut over his right eye and a concussion after an axe hit him in the face on Highway 16. (Chris Vandenbreekel/650 CKOM)

“A lady pulled over and woke me up on the side of the road. I didn’t really know what happened or how long I’d been out.”

Peddle suffered a concussion, along with a significant cut just above his right eye. He credited the sunglasses he was wearing at the time for saving his eye.

After waking up, he managed to phone RCMP and take some photos of the damage to his face and truck.

An officer from the Humboldt detachment arrived and took his own photos, then drove up and down the highway to see if any other debris had fallen off from a vehicle.

“He went around to the farms and farmhouses, but no one had seen anything,” Peddle said.

Humboldt RCMP said Tuesday they were looking for the public’s assistance in the investigation.

It’s not the first time Peddle has had something fly through his windshield on the highway.

About a decade ago, he was driving a car near Kenosee Lake when a long piece of rebar fell off a truck, bounced off the pavement and pierced the windshield on the driver’s side, coming through just above his shoulder — missing him by inches.

“It just kind of hit the concrete, I saw the sparks and it came up and went straight through,” he said.

A piece of rebar pierces the windshield of Mackenzie Peddle’s car in 2008. (Mackenzie Peddle/Submitted)

The rebar ended up piercing straight through the back seat and into the trunk, pinning it shut.

“I’ll never forget the sound of the glass breaking,” Peddle said.

Peddle said he was left with a sense of déja vu after seeing the axe and his shattered windshield Wednesday.

“When I kind of came to and started thinking about it, I thought ‘wow, this is just like last time,'” he said.

Peddle told 650 CKOM Friday his truck’s windshield and front seats both had to be replaced.

“Apparently when there’s that much blood on them it’s labelled as a contaminant, a biohazard.”

He said he hopes his story serves as a reminder to anyone hauling goods on the highway.

“You have to be really careful about what you have in the back of the truck and make sure everything’s tied down,” he said.

“If there’s anything loose and you hit a bump, it could fly out.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story said the incident happened on May 23. It, in fact, happened on May 16.

An axe reportedly came off the back of a truck travelling on Highway 16 near Plunket, Sask. before going through the windshield of another vehicle. (Mackenzie Peddle/Submitted photo)