An Australian couple is being criticized for using car wipers on a snake as it was slithering on their windscreen while they were driving on a rainy day.
Melissa Hudson and Rodney Griggs from Giru, near Townsville, were driving through Bruce Highway to Alligator Creek in north Queensland when the incident happened.
The couple filmed the horrific event and were completely dumbstruck when the three-meter-long python suddenly appeared over the hood of their car and started making its way to the driver’s window.
In the video, the couple seemed a little panicked for a few seconds before turning on the windscreen wiper. Then the wiper strikes the snake repeatedly but fails to throw it off the vehicle.
The pair can be heard laughing while Hudson tells Griggs: “Just keep driving, you concentrate on the road.”
The snake proceeded to slide up the passenger side window causing Melissa to scream “my God!” while her partner shouts at the snake. The couple didn’t stop the car but instead continued using the windscreen wipers for a long while to get rid of the reptile.
Despite windscreen wipers being turned on and the snake moving down the passenger side of the car, the python continued to terrorize the couple who switched between being hysterical and laughing as they saw the lighter side of a frightening experience.
Melissa asks, “Wonder who’s going to get you?” as they approach roadworks on their trek to Alligator Creek. The panicked couple pulls up to the roadworks and Melissa jokingly asks the worker, “have you got a shovel”.
A confused traffic controller approached the car and tried to grab the python by the tail. While the worker calmly removes the snake from the car with the driver saying “you’re game!”
The python slides off the bonnet and across the Bruce Highway to safety.
Speaking to the Courier Mail, Hudson said the three-meter snake was fine in the end and slithered off after a traffic controller offered a helping hand.
“It was quite amusing, we knew the stop sign was coming up so we could get help,” she said. “What if the snake had come out in the footwell and was inside the car? It would have been the easiest place to crash. It would have been horrible.”
She said the “brave” traffic controller was a “hero” and let the snake slither to safety on the other side of the road.
“He (the traffic controller) stopped traffic that was going to come in the other direction, so (the snake) could get to the other side of the road and will hopefully live happily ever after up there,” she added.
Melissa said on social media that “glad this doesn’t happen every day.”
After the video was circulated on social media, several users said using the wipers was an act of animal cruelty. Some even went on to call the couple inhuman and cruel.
The video of the incident has left netizens furious with many questioning the need to hurt the reptile since it was outside the vehicle.
Blasting the pair, one viewer said: “What a terrible human. Poor python was hurting no one. I hope karma finds you.”
A second commented: “Poor snake….. it was on the OUTSIDE!!!! Not sure why the freakout and hurting it with the wipers.”
“This happened to me but no way would I put the wipers on, the poor babe,” said a third viewer.
A fourth added: “What a cruel person. Seriously, hope this driver is cautioned or fined for being inconsiderate of a living being… jeez”.
However, several viewers were amused and commented on the reactions of Melissa and Rodney.
One viewer wrote, “Great footage, your reactions are classic. Glad this harmless python made it to safety into the bush.”
A second commented, “Bet you need to change your jocks!!”
Other people said the video of the snake crawling on the car was terrifying. Someone joked, “Snakes on a car. Coming to a cinema near you.”
Another claimed the scene was their “worst nightmare”.
While praise was piled on the too-cool traffic controller. “What a champion traffic controller,” wrote someone.
“It’s a nice healthy looking snake, hopefully, he managed to get away unscathed. The road works fella wasn’t fazed at all,” added another.
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