I’m pretty sure this happened in an episode of the CBS show CSI during its first or second seasons. That doesn’t make it any less appalling, though.

Here’s the story from chron.com:

>>HOUSTON — A suspected drunken driver struck and killed a pedestrian on a Houston freeway early Tuesday, then drove for several miles after the victim had crashed through the windshield and landed next to the passenger’s seat, authorities said.

The driver, James Onak, 49, faces a felony charge of failure to stop and render aid in a fatality and a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated, said Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Onak had an attorney. The felony charge carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

The name of the male victim, 32, has not been released by authorities.

Police say the victim had been running back and forth across Interstate 45 in southeast Houston after his vehicle broke down when he was hit at about 12:30 a.m. by a black Mazda driven by Onak.

The collision severed one of the victim’s legs and sent the rest of his body through the windshield. It landed under the dashboard, on the passenger’s side floorboard, authorities said.

Onak drove for about three miles before a Harris County Precinct 8 deputy constable noticed heavy damage to the front of his vehicle and pulled him over at about 12:40 a.m., said Capt. Jason Finnen, with the constable’s office.

“The driver was somewhat nervous. It wasn’t apparent to the (deputy) at first that there was a body in the car,” Finnen said.

The damaged windshield lay inside the car, preventing the deputy from immediately seeing the body, he said.

“It wasn’t until the driver stepped out that the deputy could see what had happened,” Finnen said. “Because of the impact, the body was positioned up under the dashboard on the passenger’s side floorboard.”

Onak told the deputy he had hit something while traveling on the freeway but was not aware it was a person, Finnen said.

Another unit was sent back to the freeway, where the victim’s severed leg and the vehicle’s license plate were discovered.

An ambulance was called but the victim was declared dead at the scene.

The deputy indicated that Onak appeared to be intoxicated, Finnen said. A blood sample was taken from Onak but Hawkins declined to say what the results of the test were.

The Houston police department, which is conducting the investigation, could file additional charges in the case depending on what its probe reveals, said spokesman Victor Senties.

In a similar case in 2001 in Fort Worth, a former nurse’s aide hit a homeless man, drove home with him wedged in her windshield and then left him to bleed to death in her garage. Chante Mallard was convicted of murder and sentenced in 2003 to 50 years in prison.<<

It’s amazing the things we’ll do to each other sometimes.

Here’s another story about when a man lost a contest with a car’s windshield:

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