A woman is recovering after she was bitten by an eastern brown snake that became tangled in her bike chain in northern NSW.
The woman, in her 60s, was riding on the Northern Rivers Rail Trail near Burringbar in the Tweed Shire yesterday when she ran over the two-metre snake.
NSW Ambulance said paramedics were called to the incident near Upper Burringbar Road about 1pm.
The snake had to be euthanased once it was disentangled. (Supplied: I’ll Catch It Snake Relocations)
An Ambulance spokesperson said the woman was bitten on the thigh and taken to Tweed Valley Hospital in a stable condition.
Eastern brown snakes are among the world’s most deadly but it was the bike rider’s lucky day, coincidentally World Snake Day, and the reptile’s bite failed to deliver venom.
The Northern NSW Local Health District said she was released from hospital early today.
The Tweed Shire rail trail runs through farmland and bush (Supplied: VisitNSW)
Tricky operation freeing the snake
Snake catcher Sarah Mailey was called and said disentangling the snake from the bike was difficult and dangerous, with its mid-section trapped but the top half free and “very active”.
“So it had its full head swinging around able to bite and there was a few people that were standing there sort of just watching,”
she said.
Ms Mailey said she pinned the snake’s head to prevent it biting her while police and other bystanders disentangled it.
Snake catcher Sarah Mailey says rail trail users should carry compression bandages. (Supplied: Sarah Mailey)
Then she euthenased it “because it was in a lot of pain”.
Ms Mailey said the snake had a pre-existing eye injury and possibly did not see the bike approaching.
She said it was not uncommon for snakes to be on the rail trail and advised users to carry compression bandages.
“It’s a beautiful part of our region and obviously they’ve just put the trail straight through the middle of it,” she said.
“So the snakes aren’t going to go, ‘Oh well, I’m leaving now’. It’s their home. They’re still going to be there.”
