A Texas family was left stunned and covered in glass after a giraffe slipped and smashed into their car, shattering the windshield, during a visit to a Texas wildlife center.
Kari Hill was driving through the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose with her 18- and 15-year-old sons and her 1-year-old granddaughter when a giraffe stopped by her car for a quick hello around noon on Thursday, she told WFAA.
The giraffe, looking for a hand-fed snack, poked his head through the sunroof of her Kia Sorrento. She snapped a quick selfie with the long-necked animal before it suddenly tripped into the car.
“All was great until he lost his balance and fell onto my windshield,” Hill told WFAA.
The encounter with the creature quickly turned scary.
“[The windshield] started caving in while he was flailing, trying to get his footing back,” Hill said.
“We were covered in glass, and I thought it was about to turn very bad, but then the giraffe regained his footing and took off.”
Hill also sped off before pulling over, where she “made sure the kids got all the glass off of them.”
She called the park’s emergency hotline, who escorted the family out of the park.
Her car had to be towed and she had to file a one-of-a-kind insurance claim, she said.
“[It was] such a quick, freak accident,” Hill said. “[I’m] glad it wasn’t worse. Cars can be replaced. People can’t.”
The giraffe, Rim Wildlife said, was doing OK after the tumble.
The park called the “unfortunate” incident unlike anything they’d witnessed in the giraffe’s 11-year stay at the facility.
They told Hill they are not responsible for paying for the damages due to a waiver she signed beforehand.
She groaned that they didn’t get their money’s worth, with the incident happening just a quarter of the way through the $89 drive.