'It just came like a rocket': Granddaughter springs into action after large rock smashes through windshield

A softball-sized rock smashed through the windshield of a Minto councillor’s pickup truck, sending him to hospital with severe facial injuries but he says it could have been much worse if his granddaughter didn’t spring into action.

A softball-sized rock smashed through the windshield of a Minto councillor’s pickup truck, sending him to hospital with severe facial injuries but he says it could have been much worse if his granddaughter didn’t spring into action.

Town of Minto councillor, Ed Podniewicz, was on the way to the hospital in Palmerston last month to have his granddaughter's hand injury checked out.

He said a transport truck travelling ahead of him swayed toward the gravel road shoulder, and without warning, a rock came barreling through the windshield of Podniewicz’s truck.

“It just came like a rocket,” Podniewicz said. “Next thing I experience, I turn to my granddaughter, and I go, ‘What the hell just happened?’”

Podniewicz put his truck in park – not knowing the severity of the situation.

When he turned to his 16-year-old granddaughter, Autumn, he was covered in blood.