Being deathly afraid of spiders nearly cost this woman her life.
But we feel you girl, because if we were in your shoes, we would've probably acted in the same way.
A unnamed woman was driving along the Bonny Slope area in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday, Sept. 21 when she noticed she was not alone in the car. When she was about half a mile away from Skyline Blvd., a not-so itsy bitsy spider (probably to her) dropped down from her rearview mirror, and her first instinct was to completely freak out.
But instead of pulling over to get rid of the bug or at least slamming on the breaks while letting out a good scream, the woman unfortunately lost control of her car and crashed it into a ditch during her moment of sheer terror.
The spider was most likely harmless, but showing up uninvited and scaring this driver nearly caused some serious trauma. The car rolled over and flipped as it landed in the ditch, smashing the windshield. While the car is now pretty beat up - with Portland police revealing it was totaled in the crash - the woman walked away luckily with only a minor 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 pic.twitter.com/oV3woHyv9Z
— WC Sheriff's Office (@WCSheriff) September 21, 2016
While this story is pretty bad, the accident could've been a lot worse. The driver told police that she noticed the spider when she was near an intersection. Had there been other cars as she was passing by, the crash could've been much more serious than just resulting in a totaled car.
It seems a bit ridiculous that all this damage was caused by a silly little spider, but some people have serious arachnophobia. There are plenty of people who just straight up get the heebie-jeebies when the eight-legged creatures come crawling their way. Many might totally get that, but crashing the car seems a bit extreme for this situation. Then again, just imagine the spider dangling right there about to make skin contact.
The spider appeared to flee the crime scene, walking away unharmed from it all.
This may sound like the strangest cause of a crash, but spiders have long been the culprit for related crimes. In September 2015, a mom jumped out of her car when she found a spider on her shoulder. The car was still in gear as it backed out of the driveway, and the woman's 9-year-old son was in the back seat. The boy climbed into the front seat to stop the car, but hit the gas instead of the brakes, reversing the car into a passing but thankfully empty school bus. The following month, a teenage driver in Kansas caused a wreck that sent 11 people to the hospital after she tried to kill a spider that fell on her lap.
The moral of the story is to always check for spiders before getting on the road. You never know when one is trying to hitch a ride.
