Distracted driving isn’t always due to phones. This is different. Read how a stowaway snake causes an Arizona driver a slithering surprise.
Car accidents from distracted driving claimed the lives of 3,477 people in 2015. This number, though tragic, is a testament to the number of distractions we face as drivers. A number which is rising every year.
Fortunately, one distracted driver didn’t end up in an auto accident from his distraction. That said, the particular distraction was more out of the ordinary than a spilled coffee or a text message.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Layrd Mahler was in the midst of his regular morning commute when he noticed a head poke out from under the hood of his SUV. Since lizards are typical of such balmy locales, he passed it off as one of them. That is until the head slithered out attached to the body of a reasonably large snake. He turned on his wipers in hopes of brushing the snake off his vehicle, but the slippery serpent sat on the wipers and remained an intrusive passenger. The snake eventually retreated back under the hood, but when Mahler pulled over to take a look, the herpetological Houdini had vanished.
“Now I’m debating ‘do I get back in the car?’ I don’t know if it’s going to go through the vent system because they can do that. Or, do I just man up and drive home? So that’s what I did,” reported Mahler of his resolve in the face the reptilian recluse.
He reported it was a surreal experience, like something out of a movie, not a Monday morning commute. After that day, Mahler called professionals to spray out the engine and search for the creature, but it was nowhere to be found.
Now, Mahler steels himself before getting into his vehicle: “I’ve basically given myself a pep talk every day to say ‘Ok, be prepared if something pops out. That’s the best I can do I think.”
Any auto accident attorney will tell you that taking a video behind the wheel is dangerous and shouldn’t be done, but they might have less to say about snakes slithering within a vehicle’s inner machinations. Rather than risking the trouble and having to find a car accident lawyer, it’s definitely safest to pull over and let nature go about its slithery business.
