Local

MUST SEE: Snake clings to side mirror of moving car in Gaston County

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A Gaston County woman sent Channel 9 video of a black snake clinging to the side mirror of a car she was riding in.

Kecha Rendleman Robinson‎, who is a teacher in Gaston County, was sitting in the passenger seat last week when her husband told her to look at the snake that had slithered around on the mirror.

"There is a snake and I'm terrified of snakes. I'm literally frozen," Robinson described when she first saw the snake.

(MUST SEE: Click PLAY to watch the snake slither around moving car)

She managed to record the snake slide up along the passenger window. The car came to a stop and the snake moved off the window, along the side of the car and down the onto the ground.

Robinson's husband, who was driving, said the snake was probably sitting near the windshield wipers until the car started moving.

"If I was driving, the story would have ended differently. I know I would have wrecked," Robinson said.

Robinson said her neighbor has recently killed three copperhead snakes in his yeard. She said she has mothballs and snake away products spread around her home.

Snake sightings on the rise

Channel 9 reported this week that calls to the Carolinas Poison Center for snake bites have nearly quadrupled compared to last year, officials said.

(WATCH: Boy recovers from snake bite)

In April, the center received 71 calls for snake bites, compared to 19 calls in April 2016.

Copperheads, cottonmouths, rattlesnakes (eastern diamondback, pygmy and timber) and coral snakes are the venomous species native to North Carolina.

The coral snake is the rarest and the copperhead is the most plentiful, according to the Carolinas Poison Center.

On Tuesday, a man said he was bitten by a copperhead at Latta Plantation. Last week, another man was bitten by a copperhead while doing yardwork in Ballantyne.

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com: