Continuity mistake: When Jim pushes John out the car, in the shot where John is lying on the road, his head is on the road's white stripe, yet when it cuts to a closer view, his chest is on the white line, not his head. (00:12:30)
Continuity mistake: In one scene C. Thomas Howell almost runs head-on with an 18 wheeler, but just misses it. However, the truck clips the car he is driving and clearly takes the bumper clean off. The next driving scene shows the bumper back on the car.
Revealing mistake: When Jim hits the brakes in his stolen patrol car, the two pursuing police cars turn and flip over and over. As they roll, the 'roll cannon' is visible on the underside of one of the cars (a round steel tube in a hole in the floor) and at left, the two cannon slugs from both cars bounce down the road. This device fires the slug downward, and the force behind it lifts the car when the slug hits the road, launching the car over.
Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the film, the bus that Jim sneaks on to changes from two rear axles to one.
Other mistake: The Hitcher reverses his pick-up truck out of the gas station after he drops the lighted match. His wheels, wheel arches and perhaps the underside of the truck would have been soaked in petrol as he drove over the gushing pumps. So as he was burning rubber during this manoeuvre - this would have ignited the petrol on his truck.
Factual error: Towards the last scene, Howell and Hauer share the same shotgun (Ryder to take pop shots at Jim in the jeep, Jim to ultimately fire three shots to kill Ryder). The shotgun used can hold at most seven or eight shells, not the 12 or more that are fired between Ryder and Jim starting from when Ryder escaped the bus.
Continuity mistake: Just after John throws Jim's keys back to him, Jim is driving along the road and gets hit from the back by John. Jim spills coffee on his cheek and neck, but in the following shot nothing is there, and he couldn't have wiped it off between shots. (00:19:10)
Continuity mistake: When Jim is driving along the road, the car with the boat on the back passes him. When John appears, Jim pulls out onto the other side, and the road is just flat with sand and grass, yet when it cuts to a face shot of Jim there are now large mounds of mud, or something, at the side of the road. (00:14:05)
Revealing mistake: When the two police cars flip over if you look close you can see that at least one of the people in the car is a dummy. The one dummy is wearing a hat that appears to stay on his head even when the car flips. (01:03:00)
Continuity mistake: During the scene where Ryder has a knife to Jim's throat and is asking him to repeat "I want to die", you can see through the passenger window behind Ryder that morning is starting to break. About a minute down the highway when Jim and Ryder come upon the construction zone, it is now black as night again.
Continuity mistake: When John has just dived into the Sheriff's truck from the prison truck, and tells Jim to drive, Jim accelerates, then brakes hard, to throw John through the windshield. As Jim brakes, John's left hand is holding the shotgun, and his right hand is holding Jim's lapel. In the next cut, as John goes through the windshield, the shotgun is in his right hand. (01:30:20)
Audio problem: Halsey tries to get the family in the station wagon's attention by honking his horn. After the near-collision with the bus, the horn honks in a different note.
Continuity mistake: When Nash is talking with Jim in the restaurant where she works, she is holding a flask in her left hand the puts the flask down, but in the following shot it appears in her right hand. (00:27:10)
Continuity mistake: When Jim is being questioned at the police station, the guy phoning Jim's brother has his hand on the phone or by the phone, then he moves his arm away, but in the following shot his hand is still on the phone. (00:33:00)
Continuity mistake: After Jim picks up John, they see a VW Beetle that's on the side of the road and its position changes in the next shot. (00:05:30)
Factual error: All the police officers are described on the cast as 'troopers', but those who arrest Jim at the diner and those who pull him off the bus are actually deputy sheriffs, not state troopers. They are not wearing uniform, are not driving cars with state police badges, are wearing stars instead of police shields, the place where he is taken after being arrested has 'Sheriff Station No.7' written on the outside wall, and the name of the sheriff's department can be seen when he is being photographed.
Continuity mistake: When Jim is being asked questions in the police station, the cop with the blue denim jacket puts his hands on the chair in one shot, then they're not there in the next shot, but back in the shot after. (00:32:30)
Continuity mistake: C. Thomas Howell has a mole-like thing on the left side of his chin, that appears, disappears, and fades between shots.
Continuity mistake: When John dives from the prison truck into the sheriff's truck through the windshield, the stuntman drops the shotgun as he impacts the glass. We even see it bouncing into the back seat. But in the next cut, John has the shotgun firmly grasped as he lands on the seat. (01:30:00)
Revealing mistake: When Jim is sitting in the back of the police car, after taking the two policemen hostage, John shoots at the two cops. When the cop on Jim's right gets shot and the window smashes, blood jets up from behind him - not from his neck. (00:44:30)
Answer: The windshield glass would have not broken this easily (like regular window pane glass in your home or such). I am going to guess that kind of glass hasn't been used on car windshields since at least the early 70's, if not before. The Sheriff's truck didn't appear to be that old, either.