SOUTH ABINGTON TOWNSHIP -- A man who was a passenger in a pickup truck is recovering from injuries he received when a rock smashed right through the windshield in Lackawanna County.
This is the second time in a little more than a year this kind of thing has happened in our area and police are looking for whoever did it.
We spoke with the victims and they said they have been thinking a lot about that other case in Union County and how their own story could have been much worse.
State police are investigating to see if that rock was thrown from an overpass in South Abington Township and who might have thrown it.
A crew was on its way to the Koerner family home near Clifford to fix a gaping hole in the windshield of their pickup while Peter and Brenda Koerner relived how the hole got there.
Over the weekend, they were making an overnight trip home from the Bloomsburg Fair when on the Northeast Extension of the Turnpike near Clarks Summit, they heard what sounded like an explosion.
"Initially, I thought it was a blowout," said Peter Koerner, the driver. "But then when I didn't lose any control of the vehicle, it didn't add up. And I was very confused, I was dumbfounded. My nephew Josh is talking about being hit, being hit, and he's got blood on his hands, all over."
It was a rock that hit their nephew Josh Stoddart square in the chest.
The Koerners believe the rock came from an overpass that is Shady Lane Road in South Abington Township. At first, the Koerners thought what fell could have been a part of the bridge. But, it wasn't. It was rock.
"The rock was larger than my fist with very sharp points. I mean, I have a fairly large fist. It was frightening, it was several pounds," Koerner said.
You can't deny the similarities between this story and the story of Sharon Budd, the woman from Ohio who suffered serious head injuries last year when a rock hit her family's windshield in Union County.
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Brenda would normally be sitting in the front, but she gave up the seat for her much taller nephew.
"I believe that Josh was put in that seat," said Brenda.
The Koerners say Josh suffered a bruised lung, but he will be OK. They say it doesn't make what happened any less scary.
"I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. I'm still shaking my head and I'm feeling, I'm still feeling the effects. I just can't believe it," Brenda said.
''I'm at a loss. I'm at a loss why someone would feel like they were entitled to do something like this," Peter added.
State police are investigating and have not made any arrests. The Koerners ask anyone with information about how this could have happened to call state police.
