Young female frees herself when car stops after 10km and is taken to hospital with minor injuries

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Wildlife carers say they are stunned a koala that was hit by a car and dragged along a New South Wales highway at high speeds escaped with only minor injuries.

The ABC reported that the young female koala, named Wazza by her carers, was carried for about 10km on the front grille of a car on the Pacific highway, north of Kempsey, on the NSW mid north coast.

She managed to free herself when the car stopped after about 10km, staff at the Port Macquarie koala hospital told the ABC.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wazza’s sore foot: she sustained gravel rash when she was caught in a car’s grille and dragged 10km at high speed on the Pacific highway north of Kempsey, NSW. Photograph: Koala hospital, Port Macquarie

They were surprised the ordeal had left Wazza with only minor friction burns on the lower part of her legs.

“[She] was dragged 10km along the highway, with the back legs down,” Cheyne Flanagan, the hospital’s clinical director said.

The speed limit on the highway is 110km/h.

When the car stopped Wazza scurried up a tree. The driver called the animal hospital when he realised what had happened.

The koala had “pretty bad gravel rash” but her injuries could have been much worse.

“I suspect she pulled her hind legs up and that’s what reduced her injuries,” Flanagan told Guardian Australia on Thursday. “She would have been dragged for 10km ... She would have had no feet left.”

Despite the gravel rash, fear and adrenaline would have spurred Wazza to rush up the tree, Flanagan said.

Wazza, who is estimated to be three years old, has been recovering since the accident a week and a half ago.

When she arrived at hospital she was given a general anaesthetic so staff could tend to her injuries.

“She was pretty freaked out,” Flanagan said. “Most wild animals don’t like it when you touch them at the best of times.”

The week in wildlife – in pictures Read more

Wazza was “doing fabulously” and could be released within three weeks.

“She’s outside in the rehabilitation yards, climbing trees – only small ones,” Flanagan said. “It won’t be long when she’s healed properly.”

Although the hospital deals with drag injuries from time to time, Wazza was the first to enter its care after a 110km/h ordeal: “She takes the cake.”