A New York driver heading out for an ordinary afternoon unexpectedly captured what is said to have been a meteor streaking across the sky. What’s even more interesting is that the whole thing happened thanks to some remarkable timing.
Dan Wilcox of Rome, New York, was driving on Erie Boulevard on May 30 when something unusual caught his eye: a bright fireball just ahead, streaking across the sky in a quick blaze.
“It was pronounced and hard to miss,” Wilcox said when speaking to NewsChannel 9. Fortunately, his dashcam happened to be recording when the rare moment unfolded.
According to the American Meteor Society, the sighting appears to line up with a much larger event going on across the Northeast. They confirmed that a meteor roughly three feet wide entered Earth’s atmosphere near the Massachusetts and New Hampshire border.
Dashcam Captures Meteor Falling in Massachusetts
The dashcam footage was shared with the American Meteor Society to determine whether it was actually part of the larger meteor event. Robert Lundford, Fireball Program Monitor for the organization, said that it is “certain” that the footage is of the same meteor.
“This object was seen all the way from Maine down to Delaware,” explained Lunsford. That means that it’s very likely that others across the East Coast may have witnessed the same meteor tearing through the atmosphere.
For Wilcox, however, the experience felt even more unlikely because he wasn’t even there to actually witness it. He was actually on his way from responding to a call and going to the Erie Canal to go fishing when the meteor appeared overhead.
That’s a Whole State Away
“If it wasn’t for that person having an emergency and us leaving for that, I probably would not have been in my car, certainly not in that area at that time,” said Wilcox. The unusual chain of events made the moment feel even more surreal.
Although his dashboard camera runs continuously, Wilcox admitted that he did not immediately realize that he captured something like that. It took him about 15 minutes before the possibility even clicked in his brain.
“My dash camera runs ll the time, but rarely anything happens,” he said. “Honestly, I didn’t think about it for a few minutes. Then it dawned on my probably 15 minutes later, that I probably got it on camera.”
Reactions To Capturing Meteor on Dashcam
Reflecting on the unexpected moment, Wilcox said the experience reminded him how everyday life can occasionally collide with something bigger. “Every once in a while, our daily lives and these greater moments collide,” Wilcox said.
The meteor itself exploded off the coast of Massachusetts, not injuring anyone in the area. The energy released generated a sonic boom felt from Delaware to Montreal.
Local authorities did not release any additional identifying information. When agencies provide limited details, we supplement reporting with local news coverage, public records, and direct outreach whenever possible. In this case, no additional information was available at the time of publication.