Couple slammed for 'cruel' reaction to python crawling across windscreen
A couple have come under fire for their chaotic reaction to a snake crawling across their car windscreen while they were driving.
Rodney Griggs was in the driver's seat on Monday as he and Melissa Hudson travelled down Bruce Highway towards Alligator Creek in Queensland when suddenly the reptilian hitch-hiker revealed itself.
Ms Hudson filmed as the three-metre python slithered across the moving vehicle's bonnet and windscreen, with her yelling and laughing in the process.
She encouraged Mr Griggs, who flicked on the car's windscreen wipers, to "just focus on the road" and keep driving.
Eventually they pulled over near where a group of workers were convening and Ms Hudson yelled out, "have you got a shovel?".
A worker approached the car and calmly pulled the python from the bonnet and released it onto the ground.
Ms Hudson later shared her video of the ordeal to Facebook, writing: "Glad this doesn't happen every day".
Thousands respond to snake video online
The video rapidly gained thousands of views and was shared across several Facebook groups. People were stunned by the couple's ordeal, while some disagreed with the their handling of the situation.
Several thought the act of turning the wipers on while the snake was on the windscreen was "cruel" and the couple should have pulled over immediately after spotting the snake.
"Why would you not pull over? It’s a harmless python and you could have flung him from the windscreen with the wipers, and sent him under the wheel of your car," someone wrote in a comment.
"What kind of moron drives down the road with a big carpet python on the windscreen?," another said.
"How cruel, pull over and let it get to safety," a third person wrote.
Someone else labelled the couple's actions "disgusting" and went as far to say that they "should be ashamed of themselves".
"Pull over and help the poor bugger python off into the bush," another person said.
The couple did pull over and the snake seemingly escaped unharmed, with a second video confirming the worker saw it slither away back into the wild.
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