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What a buzz kill!
An Ohio driver had a startling experience behind the wheel when a cicada flew into his SUV, leading to a chaotic sequence of events. The driver lost control of his vehicle and ended up flipping it while he frantically attempted to get rid of the unexpected intruder.
The incident occurred on a Wednesday afternoon in Blue Ash, located approximately 14 miles northeast of Cincinnati. A crash report, as reported by USA Today, detailed how the 37-year-old driver’s Kia Sorento was infiltrated by the cicada through an open window.
As the cicada buzzed around inside the vehicle, the driver, in a state of panic, tried to remove the insect. However, his efforts to swat away the bug resulted in him swerving off the road, hitting a pole, and ultimately flipping his silver SUV onto its passenger side.
“We’re all well aware that these pesky cicada don’t respect personal space, including while driving,” the Blue Ash Police Department said in a Facebook post.
“It may be a good idea to keep the windows up for the next several weeks. As you can see, a cicada attack can be dangerous.”
Police also shared a photo of the mangled car on its side, with a shattered windshield and airbags seemingly deployed.
The driver walked away unharmed, though cops joked that the noisy suspect “fled the scene.”
Billions of the cyclical critters from the Brood XIV class are expected to descend on 13 states this year, including New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, experts have warned.
The red-eyed bugs are the second-largest of the periodical cicadas — a species that hunkers underground for years as nymphs, feeding on tree sap, before bursting to the surface when the soil temperatures reach 64 degrees Fahrenheit.