Large rock from I-5 overpass hits UO student in face, causes crash
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RICE HILL, Ore. - A rock larger than a baseball crashed through the windshield of a car on Interstate 5 Monday night, injuring the University of Oregon student athlete behind the wheel and causing the car to crash.
UO student Molly Grabill, 20, of Poway, California, was driving north on I-5 around 10:40 p.m. when a rock larger than a baseball came down from the Isadore Road overpass at Exit 146, smashing through the driver's side of the windshield and hitting Grabill in the face, Oregon State Police said.
Grabill's passenger, Chris Brewer, grabbed the steering wheel of the 1997 Subaru Legacy station wagon but was unable to control the car. The Subaru went off the road and overturned on the freeway, police said.
Grabill was taken by ambulance to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield for treatment of facial injuries. She was reportedly in good condition Tuesday morning, police said.
Brewer was treated and released for injuries from the crash.
Grabill and Brewer are both distance runners on the Duck track and cross country teams.
Anyone with information about persons or vehicles seen near the mentioned location around the time of this incident is asked to call OSP Detective Tom Willis at (541) 440-3334 or the OSP Southern Command Center dispatch at (541) 440-3333.
“It is difficult to comprehend when a random act such as this one happens to anyone, let alone members of our athletic family," said Rob Mullens, the UO athletics director. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Molly and Chris for a speedy recovery. They have the wonderful support of family, friends, teammates and coaches and we are very thankful both are expected to recover.
“I urge anyone with information on this incident to please come forward and contact the Oregon State Police so that no one else gets hurt.”
“The most import thing is that we are grateful Molly and Chris are going to be alright," said Robert Johnson, the head track coach. "We’re a tight-knit, family oriented team and this has been a real shock for all of us. The outcome could have been much worse.
“Our team has rallied around Molly and Chris and I’m so proud to see them all being there for their teammates and doing whatever they can to help. We will continue to support Molly and Chris and we ask for all of TrackTown to pray for a speedy recovery.”
Did'nt the sameting happen last month? But in that case 2 teens where cuaght throwing rocks off the over pass. I'll bet this comes down to the samething.
Just like so many other acts, throwing a rock at a car from an overpass (or from any other place) needs to be elevated to attempted murder. Until we get tough on crime innocent people will continue to be victims of a society that refuses to acknowledge the problem of far too many people with no decent values or morals.
I guess extend the 'cages' on the overpasses from one side to another side to prevent any large objects from being able to be hitting the streets below
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. By the way 'what in the hell is wrong with people today' ???
 @yaquina my sentiments exactly
OMG that was a close call!! One or both of them could have suffered permanent brain injury or have died. This rock-throwing from freeway stuff should be treated as attempted murder. Maybe that would cause some idiots to think twice before tossing a rock.
That is scary! She looks like Gwyneth Paltrow a bit. I hope this was some freak accident and not some jerk kid or worse yet an adult!
The last time something like this happened, "rocks being thrown", some were for making the kids apologize. Hopefully in this case, the police find out what actually happened. Was there a vehicle on the overpass that might have lost a rock from a load? Was there a dually wheel that a large rock got stuck in and came free? Or did some lowlife individual decide they wanted to toss a rock?
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I hope she has a complete and full recovery. I hope her insurance covers the loss of the vehicle.
And hopefully the police catch who may have done them, and arrest them.
 @Just Lookin Were there really people advocating for merely making them apologize? When it could have killed someone?
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If there are people that far out of touch with reality here on the forums, it's no wonder there are nutcases out there throwing boulders at vehicles from overpasses.
Starshadow,
Yes it was a couple of weeks or less ago, two kids tossed a large rock through the windsheild of a car. Some were really upset like this one, some posters mentioned it as a prank, and that the kids should only pay for damages and apologize and perhaps a little community service, in other words "kids being kids"
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When things like this happen, sometimes it is a preventable accident, thrown from between dual tires, or falling off of a flatbed trailer and bouncing, or being hit by a tire and being launched.
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There are also those that think it is cool or neat to toss them.
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I almost lost a windshield by a large chunk of tire flying over the top of a 40' trailer, it hit the road right in front of me and bounced up, the hood deflected it, so it hit the cab just above the window and it kept going. Ended up with two dents...better than a windshield
Molly's my niece. You rarely meet a nicer kid. She's smart, a dedicated athlete, good student, pretty; really, she's the entire, real deal. She'll be fine, eventually. She'll be getting some dental work, and we'll have to see if anything else needs to be done once the swelling goes down and the stitches come out. Could be a little scarring; could be a lot.
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I'd bet it was kids who did this. I'll assume it was a kid or kids. They're lucky (we're lucky, Molly's lucky, everyone's lucky) neither Molly nor her teammate (I don't know Chris, myself) weren't killed, and the car didn't careen into anyone else and hurt or kill them.Â
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I hope the kids turn themselves in. I wouldn't want to see their entire future lives ruined because they don't have developed frontal lobes yet and can't judge consequences. I would want to see their current and near-future lives mightily inconvenienced, and that they have to spend a lot of time helping other people as a result of this. This kid or kids clearly need to learn about consequences, impulse control, empathy; all the things that keep the rest of us from doing something like this. They could have killed Molly, Chris, and others as well, and they need to feel the full weight of that. That they didn't kill them is luck; certainly not due to their actions.
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I, and am sure the rest of the family, appreciate the well-wishes and expressions of concern. Do a good deed for young adult, and try to teach kids that they are people with the power to affect others, for good or for ill, and that actions have consequences sometimes far beyond what they can envision.
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And don't throw rocks at cars.
Of course, if it turns out to be an adult not of diminished capacity in some way, then I agree wholeheartedly with "Jeremy".
The perpetrator of this crime need to start a career as a Prison B**ch
The comments already made show exactly what a serious crime this is thought to be. I personally would call it attempted murder. I don't care what the age of the person who did it, they should be severely punished.
This crime happens way too much. It has got to stop!
Spineless coward is the only thing that comes to mind about anyone who would throw a rock off an overpass.
They need to find the whoever is behind this and charge them with attempted murder. This is ridiculous who in their right mind tosses a rock that size off an overpass onto I freaking 5.
As a diehard Orange and Black fan:
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My best wishes on a speed and full recovery!
I say go after the same kids that were caught throwing rocks at the cars earlier, if anything at least to give them a hell of a scare.
It is time that these people throwing rocks need to be taught a lesson, They need to be placed in a car, seat belted in and driven to the under pass and have some one hurl rocks at them while they are doing 75.
What a horrible experience for these two students! And seriously, how is throwing rocks from an overpass FUN? There is only one reason to do that, to hurt someone. Sure are a lot of sickos in this world, probably kids raised by parents who believed that discipline was bad for the kids, that it would hurt their feelings or their "self esteem". I hope the two students recover fully from their injuries. The emotional healing is going to take a bit longer.
 @Kachina More likely raised by drunken, drug-using, multiple-(serial)-times-broken-home idiots who scream at and beat their kids all the time right into becoming embittered, enraged, amoral and apathetic little  punk criminals. I see it all the time and I bet you do too. Crazy perma-juvenile-delinquent "adults" who never matured past age 14 but are now in their 20s, 30s, 40s  breeding and raising kids = nightmare on rollerskates.Â
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 @Nope Preferably by dropping them off an overpass into the path of an oncoming truck.
@al_02 @Nope That is the perfect payback al_02. Maybe just drop them on a flabed truck with fenceposts (untarped of course) whilst its going 80 mph.
It was the Dark-side of the force. Come on KATU, rocks larger than a base ball just don't get picked up by the wind.
What is funny is that they don't explicitly mention "we think someone did this and threw the rock from the overpass" but its clearly inferred. Is it because they just don't know where it came from?
@portlandborn83
Implied, you mean.
@portlandborn83....what does it matter whether KATU says it or not. The important thing is for anyone who might have seen something to report it.
It's horrid that some punks killed an old Suby. The driver sounds like she will recover fine physically. Then young lady is without a car at an out of state collage in an area without good mass transportation. That is a big hit to her pocket book. If they catch the kids they should be charged with attempted man slaughter, or worse. No sympathy for those POS.
@WebFootSTi You know they never will, espically if its a teenager that did it. God forbid, we might permentantly scar these poor poor innocent childrens minds and ruin them for life if they actually get a REAL punishment. Kids today wouldnt stand up to 5 seconds of the type of punishment our parents used on us. Makes me sick.
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You don't have to look far to find people who think that any punishment "harms" a child in any way. To those that think that way - it was the punishment that caused the bad behavior. They will never believe that some kids are just bad from birth or are that way because they want to be that way. They are most times oblivious to the fact that the little piss ant(s) harmed someone - only that there was a causation beyond the control of the little piss ant. And god forbid we abuse them more by putting them under lock and key. And they are for the most part educated "in the book sense" people too. It baffles me why seemingly inteligent people think that way.
i hope they catch this idiot. and when they do, this person or persons needs to be made an example. stiff punishment needed.
Someone threw a water balloon @ my brothers car and it broke the head light, he ran over the glass and got a flat tire. This was like 30 years ago but it shows how much damage a water balloon can do. I am sick and tired of people saying it is just a car....my car cost me $30,000.00 (12+ years ago) so in my mind it is $30,000 not a car!
I hope whoever was responsible for that rock careening onto the freeway gets their just desserts. By desserts, I mean a serious walloping by the justice system.
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To be honest, people who are throwing those rocks over the overpasses know that people can die from them. They should be charged with attempted murder.
@advocatus diaboli "people who are throwing those rocks over the overpasses know that people can die from them. They should be charged with attempted murder"
Well said. I couldn't put it better myself.
The horrible part about this is if this was a teenager, they wont get anything more than a slap on the hand, maybe some juvy time, couple days, but thats its. How can we control our children when we're not allowed to enforce rules in our own homes?
OMG, how scary... and how fortunate that these 2 people were not more seriously injured - even killed..! Â Â Best wishes to both of them for their fast recoveries..! Â
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Sounds like someone's idea of "sick fun"; hope they catch up to whoever threw the rock off the overpass..! Â (If and when they do, maybe that person should be sent someplace where they can make big rocks into little rocks...by hand, of course..!)
 @margay1 Well said. I wish Ms. Grabill a speedy recovery. Very scary indeed.
 @margay1 Yep it's stories like these that really really make me want to believe in heaven and hell so I can feel like those involved will eventually get what they deserve. Although I would really prefer they pay in this world first!