Couple sideswipes runaway elephant
OKLAHOMA CITY - An Oklahoma couple driving home from church nearly slammed into an elephant that had escaped from a nearby circus late Wednesday.
“Didn’t have time to hit the brakes,’’ driver Bill Carpenter said. “The elephant blended in with the road. At the very last second I said, ‘Elephant!’ ’’
Carpenter, 68, said he swerved and only sideswiped the Asian elephant on US 81 in Enid.
“So help me, Hanna, had I hit that elephant, not swerved, it would have knocked it off its legs, and it would have landed right on top of us,’’ he said. “We’d have been history.’’
The couple were not injured. But the 8-foot, 4,500-pound female elephant was being examined for a broken tusk and a leg wound. A local veterinarian said it appeared to have escaped major injury.
