Turtle crashes through windshield on Florida highway, survives

April 22 (UPI) -- A turtle crashed through the windshield of a car on a Florida highway and struck a 71-year-old woman in the head -- but both the woman and the reptile are expected to be OK.

The Port Orange Police Department said a woman called 911 on Wednesday to report she had been driving on Interstate 95 when an object crashed through her windshield and struck her passenger, her 71-year-old mother, in the head.

A driver who stopped to help during the 911 call identified the object that came through the glass as a turtle.

The 911 caller's mother was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where doctors determined a cut above her eye was not a serious injury. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Officer Andre Fleming, a police spokesman, said firefighters discovered the turtle was alive and apparently free of serious injuries, suffering only scratch marks to its shell. Fleming said firefighters released the turtle into the nearby woods.

The driver of the vehicle said she didn't see the turtle until it was in the air and falling toward her windshield. Police said the animal may have been thrown into the air by a nearby vehicle.