‘It just flung into my windshield’: Turtle smashes into car near Lake Busbee in Conway

CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – If you haven’t heard of a flying turtle, today might be the day.

One man’s car got hit by a turtle that was flying through the air after another vehicle’s tire smacked the turtle into the air.

“I still don’t understand how it, like, the exact angle of that tire, for it to just fling into my windshield,” said John Gardner, who’s windshield is now shattered from where the tortoise hit.

He says stuff like this never happens to him, but Tuesday afternoon around 4:30 p.m., it did, while he was minding his own business driving into work down Highway 501 in Conway, near Lake Busbee.

The rear tire on a truck near him on the road hit a turtle, flinging it into Gardner’s windshield.

“Yeah, I was definitely surprised, because like, I couldn’t even tell what it was at first because it’s like, I guess just a big, black dot coming at me, and it’s like, I couldn’t move at all really,” he said. “So, I was just like, oh okay. I hope it’s not too bad.”

Gardner was covered in glass after the accident. According to Rob’s Auto Body, the turtle died upon impact.

“I didn’t get hurt at all, I just remember when the cops showed up, he was like, hey, you’re covered in glass,” said Gardner. “And, because I didn’t know, like I didn’t know there was any in my hair and stuff like that, so I’m just like oh okay.”

Gardner says police were called to the scene and the guy who hit the turtle got out of his truck.

“He checked on me, and like, we both stopped and he made sure I was okay and everything like that,” he said.

It’ll take almost $2,000 to repair Gardner’s car.

“The wipers and stuff like that all got broken too, so it’s going to be a lot,” he said.

Gardner says he was so startled, that there was no reaction time or space on the road to move over out of the way of the turtle.