Tuesday's rock-throwing incident in Akron is hitting close to home for the family of Sharon Budd, a Stark County woman who was severely injured a decade ago after four teens were charged with throwing rocks at her car while she and her family were driving on a Pennsylvania highway.
"The second that rock was thrown, it affected several, several people dozens," Rhonda Williams, Budd's sister-in-law, told 3News in a Wednesday interview. "Dozens."
Williams says the summer of 2014 is one she will never forget.
"Sharon was a fantastic mother, wife, teacher, and she loved them all," Williams stated. "She loved doing what she did, and that's all gone now."
Budd, a mother of four, was driving to New York City on Interstate 80 to see a Broadway show with her husband Randy and their then teen daughter Kaylee. A few hours into their trip, near the Gray Hill Road overpass in Union County, Pennsylvania, a rock was thrown at their car, leaving Budd with life-threatening injuries.
"When you throw a rock, that's a weapon," Williams lamented. "You're using these weapons to hurt people, and while it's not a gun, it's still a rock being used as a weapon."
Four teens either pleaded guilty or no contest to charges related to the incident. All were sentenced to less than five years in prison, something Budd's family says has left them devastated.
"They literally destroyed my entire family and future in about one second," said James Budd, Sharon's son, told 3News sister station WNEP back in July.
Sharon's husband Randy cared for her for two years after she was hurt, but he later died by suicide. Loved ones say he felt guilty for his wife's new reality.
"I lost my brother, those kids lost their father, and it was all because of this one-in-a-split-second decision," Williams said.
As for Sharon, who has undergone 13 surgeries over the past decade and now lives in assisted living, she says the incident has become a fading memory.
"I have little flashes of what happened," she told WNEP, "but not even one minute long."
For the rest of her family, however, the incident has left a lasting ripple effect.
"It changes lives, and it ruins lives," Williams noted. "Somebody's got to get control of this because it keeps happening."
This week's ordeal on I-76 in Akron thankfully left no one badly hurt, although one woman had to have glass flushed from her eye after her boyfriend's windshield was smashed. Williams tells us Budd is doing OK, despite experiencing a few minor setbacks this year.