THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 11, 1995 TAG: 9504110003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 32 lines
No one is immune from random horror. A 38-year-old Deale, Md., father of two boys was killed, The Washington Post recently reported, after ``someone from an oncoming vehicle threw a rock the size of a softball at his windshield.'' The father was driving home at the end of his workday.
The rock struck the windshield on his side. His truck veered off onto the right shoulder of the road, hit several trees and rolled over. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Throwing rocks and other hard objects at moving vehicles, which some youths apparently regard as a lark, is a felony in Virginia and doubtless in many other states. The metal canopies covering pedestrian bridges over roadways are an essential, expensive safeguard against such murderous missiles aimed at the traffic below. Police in Maryland had recorded five other rock-throwing incidents in the vicinity of the lethal tossing. They suspect the driver of a small car of causing the death of the truck driver.
Perhaps the rock tosser will neither be found nor disclose his identity - nor be dogged indefinitely by guilt for his crime. But we surely aren't alone in hoping otherwise. by CNB