Man From Australia Loses His Job After Speeding Because There Was A Snake In His Car

“My boss called me and said I didn’t have a job anymore."

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• July 19, 2020

A guy who became famous for driving 80mph while fighting off a poisonous snake in his vehicle was fired after the incident. James ‘Jimmy’ Canhan, from Boyne Island, Australia, was stopped by the police patrol for speeding in a 60mph zone.

The police officers filmed their approach to Jimmy’s vehicle and the moment when he tells them he has been speeding to the hospital. He believed that a snake that somehow got into his truck had bitten him.

The terrified man told the officers: "A brown snake or a tiger snake, it’s in the back of the ute. It was in the ute with me, I think it’s bitten me."

The officers saw the poisonous brown snake lying in the back tray and bleeding. The driver claimed that the snake slipped into the car through the gearbox and started to wrap around his legs; he quickly took his work knife and managed to fight it off.

The police officers immediately called the paramedics, who arrived quickly and examined Jimmy. They concluded that Jimmy was not bitten, but he was in shock.

The video quickly became viral, with more than one million views in just a couple of days. Unfortunately, this online fame has cost Jimmy dearly.

He was fired from his job after the incident. That means he also lost the company car, after selling his own.

“My boss called me and said I didn’t have a job anymore, when I was just spending time with my daughter Annabelle, who lives with her mum in Townsville, and didn’t have work on anyway,” he said.

“I had a company car, so I sold my own car, and now I’m left with nothing to drive. So now I’ve got no job, and I have my daughter to help support.”

He added:

“My dog needs to go to the vet for his ear, and I just want to get my finances sorted out to pay for it.” Jimmy said he was “facing death either way” - from driving fast or being bitten by a poisonous snake.

“I just had to calculate my own survival, it was just the primal instinct that came to me,” he said. “I had no other thoughts in my head but get this thing out of here.”

We all hope he will find a new job soon…

Damjan