'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.

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.

Ed Podniewicz in hopsital. (Submitted/Autumn Lancaster)

Autumn Lancaster said knew she had to act fast.

She pulled him from the car, and carried him to the passenger seat. Even though she only got her G1 licence in November, she said she knew she had no choice but to get him to the hospital as soon as possible.

“Having to realize now that I have to drive with a cracked windshield, my grandpa bleeding, and then I was on the phone with 9-1-1,” Autumn Lancaster said.

The two made it to the hospital. Podniewicz said if it weren’t for his granddaughter, he wouldn’t be here.

“I owe my life, I think, to her. I just get emotional every time I think about it,” he said while stifling back tears.

Podniewicz was later transferred to a Hamilton hospital where he underwent plastic surgery. He had several metal plates installed to stabilize his jaw and straighten parts of his face.

While he still can't see out of his left eye and is waiting to find out more about the extent of the damage, it’s easy to see how much his granddaughter means to him.

“She’s my rock,” he said.

While the pair may be left with a broken windshield and a few broken bones – what remains is a bond that will never be broken.