Pennsylvania State Police have been reminding people to clean the snow and ice off their vehicles before driving ever since two January storms belted our region in January.
Last week, a woman driving on Route 22 in Bethlehem when she was injured by a chunk of ice that smashed her windshield.
She’s been released from the hospital.
Since that accident, another woman reached out to us wanting to tell her story.
Madeline Grace is from western Pennsylvania.
She suffered severe facial injuries when the same thing happened to her just one day after the accident in Bethlehem.
Ice, breaking off the top of a tractor-trailer.
“It just felt like somebody, hit me in the face really hard. I don’t know. Today I feel like I was run over by a truck.” said Madeline Grace of Moon Township in Allegheny County.
Grace, 29, is the face of an ongoing issue. On Saturday she was driving outside Pittsburgh when a huge chunk of ice smashed through her windshield.
“I saw it, and I knew there wasn’t really anything I could do to avoid it. I think I was just kind of bracing for impact,” said Grace.
The ice crashed into her face, breaking her eye socket; fracturing her nose, as she came to a stop in the fast lane of a busy highway.
“The glass shattered, tiny little pieces everywhere. It was like sand. It was in my mouth. I was crunching on it,” Grace recalled.
Grace’s 7-year-old daughter, Mila, was in the back seat.
“She’s crying, and you know, I’m telling her, ‘I’m okay, I’m okay, baby, don’t worry about me.’ I catch a view of myself in the rear-view mirror, and I’m like, I am not okay,” said Grace.
The accident came just one day after a similar accident on Route 22, where falling ice from a truck forced another woman to be taken to St. Luke’s. She was treated and released. Grace says her friends emailed her a 69 News report of that crash.
“They thought it was me. And for a split second I thought it was me too because the story is exactly the same. I mean, we both even drive Subarus,” said Grace.
Madeline says she wants to meet the other driver.
“She and I are having a very similar experience right now, and if there’s anything I can do to help her, and anything that we could do to connect with each other, I would love that,” said Grace.
Grace also has a message for other drivers: Clean off your vehicles.
“I just want to bring awareness to the fact that this is not an isolated incident. Something needs to change,” Grace said.
Grace still hasn’t regained her sight. She has a doctor’s appointment Thursday to see if she’ll need surgery.
Pennsylvania State Police are still investigating both accidents and they’re trying to arrange a meeting between Grace, her daughter, and the other victim in the Bethlehem incident.