[bigcoconut]

My wife's van had the rear hatch window shatter in the garage overnight. The previous day, she had backed into the garage door before it had opened all the way and I guess the door had scraped the window. The rear window washer fluid nozzle got ripped off. We left the van in the garage that evening and the window was just fine. Came out the next morning to find the tiny glass pieces all over the garage floor and also inside the van all the way to the middle row seats. What a mess, we're still finding glass pieces in the van, next to the candy corn and pretzels when we sweep.

Anyways, MagicRat is right, this "tempered" glass is designed to shatter to a "million" pieces on impact to prevent severe cutting injuries to passengeres in case of a wreck. The front windshield is "safety" glass designed to stay in one piece in case of an impact to allow the driver visibility during an accident. This as opposed to the your house window glass which will break into several pieces usually large shards that are very sharp and very dangerous to handle.

One last thing, if, may the good lord forbid, you ever get caught in flood or submerged in your van you want that "tempered" glass in your way so you can get out.