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A koala caused a 5-car pileup while trying to cross an Australian freeway

Feb 10, 2021, 19:21 IST
Insider
The koala who stopped traffic is pictured here after being rescued.Nadia Tugwell via AP
  • A koala tried to cross Adelaide's six-lane South Eastern Freeway on Monday.
  • The koala ended up causing a five-car pileup, though no one was seriously injured.
  • The koala was rescued and released into the wild, far from the highway.
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A koala caused a five-car pileup on Monday morning as it tried to cross a busy six-lane freeway in Australia.

Police told the Associated Press no one was seriously injured in the crash on Adelaide's South Eastern Freeway, but there were some minor injuries, including a man who experienced soreness in his neck.

Two drivers at the scene got out of their vehicles to check on the koala, and it was eventually taken in by Nadia Tugwell, who picked the animal up with her jacket and brought it to her car.

"When it saw me it instantly turned around to run backwards but the other lady was there and so we jumped it, bundled it up, and it ended up in my car because she had children," Tugwell told The Guardian.

She told AP that she drove the Koala to a nearby gas station, and that it was "very active, but very calm."

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Once at the gas station, the koala climbed to the car's front seat, and and Tugwell took some pictures.

"It decided to come to the front toward me, so I said, 'OK, you stay here. I'll get out,'" she told AP. "It started sitting for a while on the steering wheel: (as if ) saying: 'let's go for a drive,' and that's when I started taking photos."

Tugwell, who told The Guardian she had previously helped rescue animals from roads, called Adelaide Koala Rescue to help release the koala safely into the wild.

Rescue volunteer Ann Bigham told ABC News that the koala was uninjured.

"The koala was in really good condition, it was lucky it hadn't been hit at all and thanks to the rescuers it was kept safe," she said.

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