The moment a stowaway snake hitches a ride on the bonnet of a van before slithering onto the top of the wing mirror while the vehicle is travelling at 70mph along the M5 is captured on shocking video.
The snake’s tongue is seen sticking out on video before it falls onto the highway.
On Saturday, Charlie Bristow was driving to Staffordshire with his father and cousin in the passenger seat when he saw the stowaway lizard.
The 25-year-old leaned over his driving father, James Bristow, to film a grass snake slithering around the front bonnet.
One of Charlie’s family members can be heard frantically saying: ‘bloody hell’ as it makes a perilous move to the side of the automobile.
The snake then proceeded to the right wing mirror, continually flicking its tongue out, as snakes do to sniff their surroundings and warn off other creatures.
It is unknown if the snake that fell into the highway is still alive.
The snake realises it can’t move any farther while still on the wing mirror and tries to curl back around to go back to the bonnet.
‘Jesus Christ, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a snake,’ a passenger can be heard saying.
The unhappy lizard then falls from the automobile and crashes onto the concrete highway, prompting the men in the van to cry, “Oh no!”
‘I was just riding down the M5 when this happened,’ videographer Charlie wrote on TikTok yesterday.
‘We tried to pull over, but there was no hard shoulder,’ says the driver.
The video has been viewed over 25,000 times and scores of astonished viewers have left comments.
‘Poor little grass snake, I hope he’s all right,’ one viewer commented.
‘I’m going to imagine there’s a part 2 and the little kid is OK,’ commented another.
‘You should have opened the window and let him in,’ said a third.
‘He’s just a harmless grass snake,’ says the narrator.
‘Why have I seen this, I’m going to be checking everything,’ said another.
‘My dad, the driver, spotted it first and exclaimed, ‘Oh my god, there’s a f***ing snake there,’ Charlie said today.
‘What?’ said me and my cousin Max.
‘We didn’t notice it for around 10 seconds at first.’
‘My dad steered into the slow lane and slowed down leading the car behind to beep at us.
‘I immediately took out my camera and began filming.
‘We were probably going about 70 miles per hour when it poked its head out.’
‘We were in the centre lane at the time, but swiftly changed to the slow lane.’
‘We really wanted to pull over and save it, but we couldn’t since it was a smart highway,’ says the driver.
‘We were stopped in a field, and it had to crawl over us.’
Grass snakes, the biggest reptile in the UK, are mostly found in lowland environments.
Some parts of the south and south east of England are particularly densely inhabited with them.
Amphibians, fish, small animals, and birds are commonly hunted by the reptiles, which have an average lifespan of 15-20 years.
The Wildlife and Countryside Act protects the harmless snakes, making it unlawful to intentionally damage or kill them.
Grass snakes, the biggest reptile in the UK, are mostly found in lowland environments.
Some parts of the south and south east of England are particularly densely inhabited with them.
Amphibians, fish, small animals, and birds are commonly hunted by the reptiles, which have an average lifespan of 15-20 years.
The Wildlife and Countryside Act protects the harmless snakes, making it unlawful to intentionally damage or kill them.
