Featured Image Credit: CONTENTbible
Topics: UK News
Rhiannon Ingle
For the most part, the motorway is a pretty mundane thing where nothing too out of the blue, par the odd traffic jam, actually happens. But, for this driver, something a little more peculiar than some morning road rage or spilt takeaway coffee happened. Watch below:
On a commute towards Staffordshire on the M5, 25-year-old Charlie Bristow noticed a less than welcome hitchhiker just casually catching a ride on the hood of his vehicle.
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Impressively able to stay on the van, which was driving at a speedy 70mph, was none other than a grass snake clinging to the bonnet of Bristow’s motor.
Quick thinking Charlie pulled out his phone and recorded the odd reptilian encounter as his dad, James, drove on in disbelief.
Charlie took to TikTok to share the strange moment captured on film, captioning the short clip “Driving down the M5 when this happened.”
The video shows the small snake hanging out on the right wing mirror, sticking its tongue out as passengers in the van all exclaim their shock over the bizarre situation.
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The family echo the words, “Bloody hell,” as the slithery guy journeys from the car bonnet to the wing mirror merely centimetres away from Charlie’s phone.
“Jesus Christ,” another passenger confesses, “I don’t think I have ever seen a snake.”
After a few more seconds, the speed clearly becomes a bit too much and the snake falls off the side of the car, with Charlie captioning the scene with: “RIP lil buddy” as a chorus of “Oh no” can be heard from the backseats.
Since sharing the TikTok, the clip has now amassed over 25,000 views and the responses to the fiasco have split its audience.
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“Poor little grassy,” one concerned commenter wrote, “hope he’s good.”
Sharing a similar sentiment, another commented: “I’m going to pretend there’s a part 2 and the little guy is ok.”
Some even took their sympathy for the snake a little too far: “You should have opened the window and let him in.”
While others felt sorry for the little guy, the video clearly put some ophidiophobes on edge, with one writing: "Why have I seen this, I’m gonna be checking everything.”
Charlie, meanwhile, reassured viewers that they 'tried to pull over but there wasn’t a hard shoulder' yet didn’t actually see the snake 'for a good 10 seconds or so'.
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“My dad, the driver, spotted it first and shouted, ‘Oh my god there is a f***ing snake there’,” the 25-year-old recounted.
Bristow concluded by echoing the more sympathising TikTok comments: “We really wanted to pull over and save it, but unfortunately it was a smart motorway so we couldn’t pull over."
The British grass snake, also known as Natrix Helvetica, is non-venomous and also the UK’s longest native snake spanning an impressive one metre in length.
While they can be found in a whole variety of habitats, including woodland, grass snakes are said to be predominantly found close to water and in lowland areas of Britain.
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The snakes are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act which ensures their safety by making it illegal to intentionally injure or kill them.