SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia woman and her brother say they’re thankful to be uninjured after a turtle smashed through their windshield.
Latonya Lark and Kevin Grant were out running errands around noon on May 12 when Lark noticed something strange coming at them.
“I thought it was a brick, and I told [my brother], ‘My God, there’s a brick!’” said Lark, who was driving. She said she slowed her vehicle.
Then they both heard what they described as a loud boom, and Grant was covered in shattered glass as the turtle burst through the windshield on the passenger side, right before Grant’s eyes.
“When the glass broke, the first thing that came to my mind was just to shield myself, so it was just like, you know, turn and just cover,” He said, adding that he was left with small cuts after the incident.
Lark and her brother believe the impact of a vehicle in front of them sent the turtle flying at them.
Grant urged his sister to pull over and call for help. A police spokesperson later said that how or why the turtle wound up airborne was undetermined.
According to a police report, Lark’s windshield was left with too much damage to be able to drive the car safely, so the vehicle had to be towed.
“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 said.
The responding officers were able to remove the turtle alive. However, Lark said, it lost one of its legs in the accident.
Officers wrapped it in a blanket, and it was later taken to Savannah Animal Care for medical treatment.
“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.
Her windshield has since been replaced. Reflecting back, the siblings said it shows that the unexpected can happen at any time.
“If people are not paying attention to the road, you know, whoever hit that turtle, they had to have been flying,” Lark said.
She said after calling to check on the turtle’s health status this week, she learned that the turtle had died after losing too much blood.
The post Turtle smashes through Georgia driver’s windshield appeared first on American Police Beat Magazine.
