'Snake on a Windshield' goes viral on YouTube

Aug 2 2011 - 2:31pm

While "Snakes on a Plane" was a box office flop, a video dubbed "Snake on a Windshield" has soared to viral status on YouTube.

Rachel Fisher was recently flying about 65 mph down Sam Cooper Boulevard in Memphis, Tenn., with husband Tony and three children when a snake popped its head out from underneath the hood beside the windshield wipers.

It was followed by about 21/2 feet of body that slithered onto the windshield.

Tony Fisher clicked on a video camera, capturing the weirdest moment of the couple's life.

"This is a water moccasin, a huge water moccasin inside our car," Fisher says on the tape.

"No it's on the outside," Rachel Fisher says.

Actually, it was a harmless gray rat snake, a friend to man because it kills mice and rats, said Steve Reichling, curator of reptiles at the Memphis Zoo.

"Snakes like to find cool, dark and safe places," Reichling said. "It probably stayed under there until the engine became too hot."

The couple didn't care why the snake was there; they wanted it gone.

The snake serpentined around the windshield for about two minutes before slithering to the driver's side rearview mirror.

Whipped by the wind, his head slammed several times against the mirror. He opened his mouth wide and tried to slither down the driver's side door. Rachel squealed, clutched the steering wheel with both hands, one eye on the road, the other on the reptile. Being upside down on the door of a car going 65 mph was the final undoing of the snake, which went flying off the car and onto the busy highway.

"Good. Get it. Kill it," Tony Fisher shouted inside the car to other drivers.

The snake's apparent demise aggravated many of the 31,672 visitors who watched the video on YouTube. The video has also been featured on several national television networks. Hundreds commented under the video that the Fishers should have pulled over and let the snake off.

"They were really indignant," Rachel Fisher said. "I deleted some of them that said bad things about my children. People were saying we should have stopped, but that didn't cross my mind at the time."


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