Airborne Turtle Smashes Through Georgia Driver's Windshield
Of all the things a person could be worried about flying through a car’s windshield, a turtle probably isn’t one of them.
But for Latonya Lark and her brother Kevin Grant, that’s exactly what happened while they were running errands on May 12 in Savannah, Georgia, according to WSAV-TV.
Lark was driving the car northbound on Harry S. Truman Parkway with Grant in the passenger seat when she saw something flying toward them.
“I thought it was a brick, and I told [my brother], ‘my God, there’s a brick!'” she told WSAV, explaining that she started to slow down her car.
Shortly after, the two heard a loud boom and Grant was covered in shattered glass, but luckily he escaped with only a few small cuts.
“When the glass broke, the first thing that came to my mind was just shield myself, so it was just like, you know, turn and just cover,” Grant said to WSAV.
“I just remember shielding myself while my sister screamed my name,” he told CNN. “After the turtle hit the glass, she was literally in shock and kept driving. I was the one covered in blood and telling her to calm down and call 911.”
Lark told WSAV that the turtle lost one of its legs in the accident.
Although a spokesperson from the Chatham County Police Department said that it is unknown how or why the turtle became airborne, Lark thinks another vehicle must have hit the turtle and sent the creature flying.
“I was driving on the Truman Pkwy when someone must have been speeding and hit the turtle so that it came flying through the air,” she wrote on a Facebook fundraiser to help pay for damages.
“The Turtle went thru windshield and almost decapitated my passenger.”
The shattered windshield was too damaged for Lark to drive the vehicle safely and it had to be towed, according to the police report.
“Even the police officer said if that glass wasn’t as thick as it was and I didn’t slow down the way I did when I saw the object coming, it would’ve been disastrous,” Lark told WSAV.
The responding officers were able to remove the turtle safely from the windshield and wrapped it in a blanket.
“The turtle got cited, but of course he didn’t have insurance and he couldn’t get a lawyer, so I wound up having to pay a deductible and everything else,” Lark said.
The creature was taken to Savannah Animal Care for treatment, but Lark learned on May 26 that it sadly did not survive.
“If people are not paying attention to the road, you know, whoever hit that turtle, they had to have been flying,” she said as a warning for other drivers.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
