The driver of this car panicked and crashed the car after seeing a spider in the driver's area in Cairo, New York, on April 10, 2019. (Cairo New York Police Department)
A woman in New York crashed her car and injured her leg because she saw a spider near her.
The unidentified woman noticed a spider in the driver’s area of the car as she was driving near Cairo, New York on April 10, local police said. She panicked and crashed, resulting in a leg injury.
A photo from the Cairo police department shows the front of her car severely damaged.
Cairo Fire, Cairo Ambulance, Greene County Medics, and Greene County Sheriffs all responded to the scene.
Emergency services respond to a car crash near the town of Cairo, New York on April 10, 2019. (Town of Cairo, New York Police Department)
“We know that it is easier for some drivers than other but PLEASE, try to teach new drivers and yourselves to overcome the fear and pull over to a safe place. Lives depend on it,” police wrote in a Facebook post.
“I totally understand her panic,” one user commented.
Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders, and it’s not the first time spiders in vehicles have caused havoc for humans.
In 2016, a woman lost control and rolled her car into a ditch when she panicked after a spider dropped down from her rearview mirror, according to Katu. Fortunately, the woman only suffered a small scratch on her hand.
“Spider season in full swing. Driver not injured after crash when spider drops from mirror on NW Thompson Rd today. BR,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet.
Last month, a giant spider was filmed in Australia crawling into the trunk of a Mazda hatchback. The person filming the video zooms in on the Mazda’s tail light, revealing the long-legged brown spider before it disappears in between the trunk door and the car.
Autoblog says there was likely no opening for the spider to get into the cabin of the car, so the people inside the vehicle should have been fine, at least until they had to open the car’s trunk.
Several years ago, a woman filmed a huntsman spider clinging to the roof inside her car as she was driving home in Australia. According to the New York Post, the woman had a 20-minute drive home with the spider in the vehicle, after which she exited the car and locked the door. The spider was reportedly gone the next morning.
People have gone to great lengths to put space between themselves and spiders, even going as far as burning them away, sometimes with mixed results.
In early 2018, a California man reportedly tried to kill a spider using a lighter, but instead of burning the spider, he accidentally ended up burning the apartment.
Lyndsey Wisegarver, one of the apartment residents, said that, after being set on fire, the spider scurried under a nearby mattress, setting the mattress on fire. The fire then spread to other parts of the room, according to Record Searchlight.
Residents tried to use a garden hose to put out the fire, but weren’t able to. The fire was ultimately put out by firefighters, who were able to keep it from spreading to the attic or neighboring apartments, Record Searchlight reported. Everybody in the apartment was able to escape without any injuries, but the damage left the building uninhabitable.
In order to kill the spiders and clear their webs, the man used a blowtorch on the cracks found on the home’s garage’s brick veneer. The flame ran vertically up the cracks into the attic, setting the house on fire. Nobody was injured.
