A teenage driver collided with a camel called Casey on an Alabama road, injuring himself and the animal which later had to be euthanized.
Police Chief James Harp said Terry Turk, owner of Turk’s Bama Bucks, was leading the camel across the road about 7:25 p.m. when the crash occurred. Harp said Turk waved his arms to get the driver’s attention, and jumped out of the way to avoid the car.
“They had to put the camel down this morning,” Harp said, because of the severity of its injuries.
Miranda McDaniel and her daughter, Kristlyn, were with Kristlyn’s boyfriend, A.J. James, at a local hospital Monday night.
Through McDaniel, James shared his account of what happened, even while getting stitches in his hand.
He said he was driving on Bryant Drive in Sardis near Turk’s Bama Bucks. Lighting is poor in the area, both James and McDaniel said, and as James passed the deer farm, he said there was a truck stopped in the road in front of its gate.
The truck’s bright lights blinded him for a moment, James related ,and he looked down for about 2 seconds. By the time he looked up, the impact occurred.
He’d hit the camel that was in the roadway and the animal crashed onto his hood and into the windshield, showering glass onto his face, shoulders, chest and arms.
McDaniel said James called her daughter just after the collision, at 7:35 p.m.
Harp said according to the police report on the incident, James looked away, possibly at his phone, when the accident occurred.
Harp said the camel was not loose in the roadway, that at Turk’s facility, all fencing and accommodations for the animals kept there exceed the federal requirements that regulate the facility.
Turk’s Bama Bucks breeds whitetail deer. The farm in Sardis contains more than 250 deer along with three kangaroos, three elk and a pair of peafowl, according to its website.
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