A Vermont trucker and husband was nearly permanently blinded after a psycho road rager pulled over and allegedly tried to gouge out his eyes while he was driving home after a long day at work.
Ronnie Bushway, 46, underwent two major eye surgeries in the wake of the shocking attack late last Tuesday.
The alleged assailant, 44-year-old Aaron Williams, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and maiming. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
Williams allegedly drove up in front of Bushway’s vehicle and brake-checked him before storming out of his car.
The enraged driver then came up to Bushway’s side, and allegedly punched him several times in the face before attempting to gouge his eyes, WCAX reported.
Witnesses rushed to help the victim, who was beaten so badly that he couldn’t really “say or talk much” as blood poured out of his nose, one bystander told Local12.
Bushway’s family insists that the attack was entirely random and is trying to do what they can to support him as he works through extensive physical and psychological recovery.
Last week’s surgeries helped him recover some of his eyesight, but doctors expect that he “will have substantial visual impairment for the rest of his life,” his family wrote in a GoFundMe page.
He will require additional surgeries — forcing him away from his job as a tractor-trailer driver, which requires him to have optimal eyesight to operate the heavy machinery.
“I’m lost for words, actually. This is just a bad thing that happened,” Bushway’s father told the outlet.
His father added that the family is trying to find special programs to help him recuperate so he can, hopefully, still retain his job once he recovers.
Bushway’s sister-in-law organized a GoFundMe for the family, pledging to put every penny towards his mounting medical expenses. As of Monday evening, more than 140 people had donated a total of roughly $27,000.
In April, another case of road rage ended in a man’s death. An irate grandpa driving on the Long Island Expressway swerved and purposefully crushed a motorcyclist against the guardrail.
The slain motorcyclist’s family described him as a “gentle spirit” who wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Last week, a Louisiana teenager and expectant mother was shot in the head by a man brake-checking her vehicle. She was rushed to a nearby hospital and delivered her premature baby girl via an emergency C-section.
The mother, 17-year-old Katelynn Strate, is not expected to survive. Her family plans to take her off life support on Tuesday. The newborn, weighing just over 3 pounds, is doing well.
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