Woman Leaps From Moving Car to Escape Spider, Much to the Surprise of Her Son in the Back Seat

There are a lot of rules about driving with children in the car. Some of them are obvious, like do not drink, do not text, keep small children in car seats, and do not leap from the moving vehicle with your child in the car. One Indiana woman missed that day in driver’s ed, though, because she was surprised that leaping from a moving vehicle to avoid a spider could possibly cause a car accident.

Look, I know spiders are scary. I once tried to convince my boss that I should be paid extra for any posts that require me to look at photos of spiders. (She wasn’t into it.) But part of being a parent means never diving out of a moving vehicle with your kid in the back seat, not even if you see a spider. But I guess Angela Kipp of Syracuse, Indiana, is really afraid of spiders. Because, according to WFTV, when she saw one on her shoulder on Friday, she decided that smashing it with her hand or brushing it off was not the answer. Instead she noped right out of the driver’s side door while the car was backing down the driveway.

Kipp’s 9-year-old son was in the back seat when she did that, and police say the quick-thinking kid jumped into the driver’s seat and attempted to stop the car. Unfortunately, he is nine years old and does not know how to drive, because he accidentally pushed the accelerator by mistake and sent the car careening backwards into a passing school bus.

Kipp’s son was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and nobody on the bus was hurt in the crash. Kipp is really lucky nobody was seriously injured in the accident, and thus this story is just a weird cautionary tale and not a horrifying tragedy. It easily could have gone the other way. Spiders are scary, but they are not nearly as scary as your car crashing into a school bus with your child in it.

(Photo: iStockPhoto/Getty Images/PeopleImages)