SBS bus captain helps python cross road safely

SBS bus captain helps python cross road safely
Bus is big. So is snake.
PHOTO: Video screengrab/Facebook/Avtar Sandhu/Singapore Wildlife Sightings

It's not surprising that as Halloween on Oct 31 approaches, spooky encounters start occuring past the witching hour.

One SBS Transit bus captain, Avtar Sandhu, posted about his early morning encounter on Saturday (Oct 30) with a decidedly large python - just look at how long it is in the video as Avtar pans from snake to bus!

As he travelled along North Buona Vista Road at 3:55am, Avtar initially thought it was a piece of equipment that  had fallen off a construction vehicle.

Most would have stepped on the accelerator and sped away from this scene, but not Avtar - he stopped, let the snake take shelter under his bus for a while, before guiding it, as it emerged from under the bus, across the road.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/1098447402/videos/421121436204714/[/embed]

This elicited comments of praise on the post which Avtar made in the Singapore Wildlife Sightings Facebook group, such as:

  • "Thank you for doing your part to protect all inhabitants of this island. You exemplify what how a civil society behave. Fabulous work here! Hope the bus captains and #sbstransit understand if you were slightly delayed."
  • "Bless you for your kindness."
  • "Thank you! Glad to see more of us being kind and not so fearful of nature."

Explained Avtar in a reply to one of the comments: "Thanks everyone but those five minutes were most nerve wrecking because a few seconds before two cars overtook me from 1st and 3rd lane, how if I was travelling in 3rd lane what was going to happen to him, then suddenly when I stopped my bus terrified python slithered under the bus and I was terribly confused as how best to help this terrified creature as time was not on my side and as I have to pick up up bus captains too, fortunately he reappeared and savely moved to the other side."

A lot of common sense is involved when you encounter a wild animal, but in case fear throws it all out the window, here's what to do. PHOTO: Unsplash

Certainly a commendable, kind and brave act by Avtar - but what should you do when you encounter such wildlife, especially if you're not as brave as this bus captain?

Click here to read our piece If You Come Face To Face With These Critters, How Ah? based on advisories by National Parks.

ALSO READ: Austrian gets shock of his life as python bites him on the toilet

This article was first published in Wonderwall.sg.

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