“Everyone wanted to get out of the car because they were afraid of the turkey,” said John Tarabocchia, dispelling any uncertainty about the scariest part of a driving a very fast car into a flying turkey. Not the blunt surprise of impact, or even the minor cuts the family suffered from flying windshield shards—just the macabre image of a 30-pound bird in its death throes, “bobbing its head inside the car.”
“I guess he was trying to get himself in or out,” said Tarabocchia of a bird teetering on the cusp of life and death.
This all took place on U.S. 20 in Indiana, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and Tarabocchia credits divine intervention for guiding his vehicle to the safety of the shoulder, with seemingly no visibility and a distractingly large, dying creature in his face.
Nightmarish, but not what I expected next from them. When you saw the turkeys in a circle, pacing—
—I feared something a little more sophisticated and occult than this. Some kind of ancient curse, not a kamikaze attack.