LEWISTON – A couple bound for a funeral ended up in the hospital instead Wednesday after a wild turkey crashed through their windshield.
Doris Carney, 72, of Waterville, sat in the emergency room at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center pressing an ice bag to her cheek. A few brown feathers dotted the floor. Splinters of glass were sprinkled in her hair and had speckled her arms with red dots.
She was wheeled off later to be X-rayed.
She had been riding in the passenger seat of Robert Glover’s van when the bird hit the windshield and landed on the floor between them.
When the turkey flew to the back of the van, Glover opened the doors and it waddled off into nearby woods, he said.
The two had been southbound on the Maine Turnpike from Waterville to Massachusetts to attend the funeral of a friend of Glover’s.
Just north of the Lewiston exit, Glover glanced something dark in his peripheral vision. A moment later, the bird had shattered the windshield. Glover closed his eyes then hit the brakes and pulled over.
“I almost had a heart attack,” he said.
Glover said he had been on the lookout for a moose, never expecting to hit a bird.
“When Thanksgiving comes, I’m not eating turkey,” he said.
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