Car rolls into river as terrified teen driver tries to escape from spider

SYDNEY, Australia — An Australian teen experienced an arachnophobe's worst nightmare as she watched her car float into a river while attempting to shoo away a large spider that surprised her in the car.

The 18-year-old had pulled up next to a boat ramp in Sydney on Saturday morning when a huntsman spider suddenly crawled out from under the car's visor and fell into her lap, Australia's 9news reported.

"With only enough time to apply the handbrake half way, the terrified teen jumped out of the car and frantically tried to brush off the large arachnid," according to the news service.

As she broke into what observers described as a "spider dance" next to the Volkswagen sedan, the car slowly rolled forward until it hit the water.

"It was like it all happened in slow motion," a witness, who was not identified, told The Daily Telegraph.

Stuart Cooper told the Australian newspaper he watched from about 150 feet away as the car rolled into the river. About 15 minutes later, he said, the teenager's mom arrived.

"She was relieved when she saw her daughter sitting on the site of the boat ramp in tears. She went up and gave her a huge hug," he told The Daily Telegraph. "She also gave me a huge hug — I'm not sure why — and then told her daughter that she didn't care about the car, only that she was OK."

It took authorities about two hours to fish the car out of the river. No injuries were reported.

It was unclear what happened to the spider.

Cox Media Group