Glass impales man after frozen water balloon plummets through his windshield
A Northern California man was seriously injured when a frozen water balloon was thrown at his windshield while he was driving home from work, causing shards of glass to hit his face and penetrate his eyes, he told ABC News.
“I was a completely random victim on my way home from work,” 28-year-old Alex Plant told ABC News.
He said the incident occurred around 9:30 p.m. Thursday as Plant was driving along Highway 20 just outside Marysville, California.
Courtesy Alex Plant – PHOTO: Alex Plant, a 28-year-old from Northern California, was seriously injured when a frozen water balloon was thrown into his windshield while he was driving home from work, he told ABC News.
While driving on the two-lane highway, he noticed an oncoming car and about a quarter of a second later felt “the impression that something was in front of me.”
“Then boom, something hit me in the face,” Plant said.
At first, Plant was unaware of what was affecting him. He said he then began to feel glass dust in his eyes and noticed a breeze coming through his windshield.
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“I managed to open my eyes for a moment and saw the big hole,” he said.
When his eyes began to swell, Plant said he pulled to the side of the road, avoiding oncoming traffic and a nearby irrigation canal, and called an ambulance.
Plant said he didn’t know what caused the crash until he got into the ambulance and said people had found pieces of water balloons and his car was full of ice.
Courtesy Alex Plant – PHOTO: Alex Plant, a 28-year-old from Northern California, was seriously injured when a frozen water balloon was thrown into his windshield while he was driving home from work, he told ABC News.
California Highway Patrol, which was at the scene with paramedics, told ABC News they were investigating the incident and reviewing security camera footage from the area.
In the emergency room, Plant’s eyes had to be washed repeatedly as hospital officials tried to remove the glass shards. At one point, a piece of glass almost an eighth of an inch in size was removed from under his eyelid.
“That explains why I felt like my eyelid was burning,” Plant said.
About six hours later, Plant was able to return home, he said.
Four days after the incident, Plant said he still had light sensitivity and the vision in his left eye had fully returned, but in his right eye “everything was just a little fuzzy.”
While Plant was recovering from the accident and would need to see a specialist for treatment of his eye, he said that a car accident he had 10 years ago had “mentally prepared” him for and that he was “grateful” that it was he who was hit.
“This could be someone’s grandparents driving somewhere. This could be someone’s grandparents or a 16-year-old high school student driving to the gas station for the first time. That type of person probably wouldn’t be able to handle themselves like I did and wouldn’t have the money to pull over and ask Siri to call 911,” Plant told ABC News.
Officials said anyone with more information about the incident should contact the California Highway Patrol.
