Woman issues plea to drivers after rock flies through windshield and smashes her face
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IDAHO FALLS — Even though it has been nearly three years, it’s still difficult for Brandy Jo Furniss to talk about what happened.
The young mother, working as a hospice nurse, was on her way to see a patient on an afternoon in November 2019. Driving down County Line Road, she remembers praying and thanking for such a beautiful day.
Suddenly, a rock weighing around two pounds flew out of the back of a truck traveling in the opposite direction. It then slammed into Brandy Jo’s windshield. She doesn’t remember what happened next because the rock hit her in the face, but witnesses say she veered off the road, crashed through a mailbox and a fence then hit another fence before stopping.
“The next thing I remember is so much pain and blood spurting everywhere,” Furniss recalls. “I don’t know how long it was but someone was trying to open my door to get me out and he couldn’t open it.”
Two bystanders rushed to help Furniss and were able to pry the door open. An ambulance was called and Furniss was rushed to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
“I remember asking the ambulance crew if they believed in God and if they would pray for me,” she tells EastIdahoNews.com. “They kept reassuring me that I’d be ok.
The left side of Furniss’s face was crushed. She had nine fractures, her left eye socket was pushed in and the force of the rock was so strong it actually broke some bones on the right side of her face as well.
“Had it been a little bit more centered or up, I probably would have been killed,” she says. “It’s a miracle that not only did the rock not kill me, but I didn’t hurt someone else and the crash didn’t kill me.”
As Furniss was being treated at the hospital, investigators were on the scene trying to figure out what happened. They found the rock in the side interior pocket of the driver’s door and the two witnesses who stopped told police they saw the stone fly out of the passing truck.
“One of the great people who stopped saw the whole thing,” Furniss explains. “He said he saw the rock come off of the vehicle and saw it bounce off the road. He thought, ‘Ok, it’s going to hit her bumper,’ and a second or two later I just went off the side of the road. He told me he was so scared to come up to the vehicle because he thought I would be dead.”
Drivers must secure loads
Unsecured loads killed over 500 people, injured 39,000 and caused more 200,000 crashes between 2011-2014, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Idaho law requires vehicle operators to make sure loads are secured so they don’t become loose, detached or a hazard to others.
“It’s one of those things that could be an innocent overlook but could change the course of someone’s life in a matter of seconds,” Idaho State Police Lt. Blake Higley explains. “The bigger the load, the bigger the risk and the most potential for catastrophe.”
There are some exceptions to the law, such as trucks transporting potatoes or other agricultural products, but in most cases, drivers must tightly secure all loads using proper equipment.
“Use the right straps. Don’t use bungee cords for something that a bungee cord is not adequate for and make sure your straps they are in good working order,” Higley says.
Returning to the scene
Four screws were put in Furniss’s face and part of her skull remains paralyzed. She had to relearn how to smile and went through months of physical therapy. When it came time to drive again, her anxiety was through the roof.
Furniss has never been back to the scene of the crash that nearly killed her, but agreed to visit with EastIdahoNews.com. She hoped it might bring some closure.
“I’ll be honest – my heart’s pounding,” she says after getting out of her car at the crash site. “Between being back here and seeing all these fast trucks driving by – it makes me feel really uncomfortable.”
Furniss walks around the gravel next to the fence where her car came to a stop. She is shocked to see pieces of her old vehicle still here mixed in with the small rocks.
It’s an emotional visit but one Furniss knows may not have happened. She holds no ill will toward the driver of the truck carrying the rock and believes he may not have thought such a heavy item could fly out of a vehicle. The reason she’s sharing her story now is to prevent similar accidents from happening to others.
“It just takes a little bit of time to secure your load or clean up after a load. Nobody thinks it’s going to happen to them but it happens a lot more than people think,” she says.
As for the rock, Furniss still has it and plans to paint her favorite Bible verse on it – Jeremiah 29:11.
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'”
Furniss adds, “As awful as this was, in some ways I know I’m as tough as a rock.”
