30-pound wild turkey killed in crash with rental car in Indiana

WLS logo
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
(LaPorte County Sheriff's Office)
(La Porte County Sheriff's Office)
(Sgt. Stephen Wheeles-Indiana State Police/Facebook)
A wild turkey hit the windshield of Indiana State Police Trooper Weller on the Indiana Toll Road in LaPorte County in northwest Indiana.
(La Porte County Sheriff's Office)
30-pound wild turkey killed in crash with rental car in Indiana(LaPorte County Sheriff's Office)
LaPorte County Sheriff's Office

LA PORTE COUNTY, Ind. -- A 30-pound wild turkey was killed Tuesday morning when it was impaled in the car windshield of a New Jersey family visiting Notre Dame University in Indiana, according to the La Porte County Sheriff's Office.

The Taraboczhia family of Emerson, N. J., had just left Notre Dame, where their daughter Riana was just accepted, and was traveling west on U.S. 20 near Wilhelm Road when the bird flew into the path of their rental vehicle.

The male turkey was killed on impact.

The five vehicle occupants -- husband, wife, daughter, teenage son and mother-in-law -- sustained minor cuts from the glass. The family was driving back to O'Hare International Airport in a black 2016 GMC Yukon.

During mating season for wild turkeys, they are often on the move and can be as hazardous as deer, police said.

Report a typo to the ABC13 digital staff