A Northern California man was left seriously injured and temporarily blinded after a frozen water balloon smashed through his windshield while he was driving home on a rural stretch of Highway 20.
Alex Plant said he was heading home around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6, when a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction passed him — and someone inside hurled an object straight at his car.
According to KCRA, ABC News and The Press Democrat, the projectile — later identified as a frozen, tied water balloon — blasted through his windshield at high speed, sending sharp glass fragments into his face and eyes.
“It came straight through,” Plant told KCRA. “I barely saw it for a quarter of a second before it just came straight through.”
He recalled feeling glass hit his eyes before he fully realized what had happened. His vision blurred almost instantly.
Despite his injuries, Plant was able to steer off the two-lane highway, but he couldn’t look at his phone. With both eyes swelling shut, he used Siri to call 911, according to KCRA and ABC News.
First responders rushed him to a hospital, where medical teams spent hours removing glass from both of his eyes. Plant said he initially feared he might lose his vision forever.
“I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to see my family, to be honest with you,” he told KCRA. “It was really stressful.”
He added that the attack seemed planned rather than random. “Somebody went through all that trouble to freeze it, tie it off, and then throw it through the windshield before it defrosted. That’s just crazy,” he said, per The Press Democrat. “Somebody went through all of that for just a random act of violence.”
The incident took place near Hallwood Boulevard on Highway 20, northeast of Marysville. The suspect vehicle did not stop, and there were no immediate witnesses, the outlets reported.
The California Highway Patrol, which responded alongside paramedics, told ABC News that investigators are reviewing possible surveillance footage and trying to identify the suspect vehicle. They currently have limited information, and no arrests have been made.
“That could have been somebody’s grandparents. That could have been some 16-year-old kid taking the car out for the first time,” Plant told ABC News. “That kind of individual probably wouldn’t have been able to handle themselves the way I did and pull over and have the wherewithal to ask Siri to call 911.”
Plant and his family are urging anyone who may have information about the incident or the suspect vehicle to contact the California Highway Patrol’s Yuba-Sutter Area office.
