AKRON, Ohio – An Ohio teacher was in critical condition Tuesday after police say some teenagers deliberately dropped a rock from a highway overpass onto the windshield of the family's car as they drove through Pennsylvania on their way to New York City.
Sharon Budd, 52, was struck in the face by the rock dropped onto Interstate 80 near Milton, Pennsylvania, on Thursday night. Four teens are charged with assault for dropping the 7- to 8-pound rock from an overpass.
Her husband, Randy Budd, told the Akron Beacon Journal Monday that she was is in critical condition at a hospital in Danville, Pennsylvania, and was to have another surgery Tuesday.
Sharon Budd, a language arts teacher in Perry, was sitting in the front passenger seat when the rock blasted through the windshield at around 11:45 p.m. Thursday.
"It was the most gruesome thing that you could ever imagine," Randy Budd told The Repository newspaper of Canton, Ohio. He and his 19-year-old daughter Kaylee — who was driving — were not injured.
Sharon Budd lost an eye and needed emergency surgery on her brain to reduce the pressure from swelling, her husband said. She's been heavily sedated since then.
Randy Budd said his wife had just finished speaking with their eldest son, Lucas. The 28-year-old was scheduled to leave for Afghanistan with the Ohio National Guard this week for a one-year deployment. After hanging up the phone, she asked him to send her a photo from his station in Fort Bliss, Texas, which he did.
"He wrote back, 'I really miss you mom,'" Randy Budd said.
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