It seemed to happen out of nowhere.

At around 9:15 this morning, Stewart Jamieson was walking along Second Avenue across from the A&W restaurant when glass suddenly smashed in the nearby bus shelter.

“It just blew right out,” said the long-time Whitehorse resident, recognizing how fortunate he or anyone was not to be standing directly in the bus shelter.

No one else was in the area at the time, he said.

While he wasn’t in the shelter, shattered glass shot onto the roadway and sidewalk close to where he was walking.

“It was a close call,” he said.

Jamieson soon waved down a city bus headed toward the stop and told the driver what had happened.

The bus driver hadn’t seen the glass smash, but radioed the information in to Whitehorse Transit officials.

Transit manager Cheri Malo said the glass-shattering was actually caused by a small rock that spewed out of a mower being used in Shipyards Park.

While the mower was a fair distance away from the shelter, the rock got into the machine. When it came out, it struck the shelter, smashing the glass.

The city has cleaned up the glass.

While Malo said the shelter will be fixed as soon as possible, she’s unsure of the cost.

While it costs anywhere from $600 to $1,500 to repair a damaged shelter, Malo is looking at new specialty glass options aimed at preventing situations like this.

She said she’s still waiting to hear how much the specialty glass would cost.

While the city has used plexiglass in the past, it was found that was easily damaged by cigarette burns and scratches.

The new option being considered is glass with a type of finish that would help prevent it from so easily shattering.