An Oklahoma man was out celebrating his 57th birthday when he came across a rattlesnake on a road and attempted to move it, but was bitten twice and died.

Barry Lester was driving in his pickup truck with his relatives on their way to Walnut Creek on Sunday when he spotted the timber rattlesnake in the middle of the road in Osage County.

Lester pulled over, approached the venomous reptile and grabbed it behind its head, as he had done many times before over the years.

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This timber rattlesnake on Sunday twice bit Barry Lester, 57, resulting in his death

Lester encountered the reptile on this road in Osage County, Oklahoma, and attempted to move it

The 57-year-old man was a former rodeo calf roper who had experience catching snakes and setting them loose near his property to help control rodent populations, reported Tulsa World.

This time, the young adult snake measuring 42 inches in length twisted its head and plunged its fangs into Lester's left hand.

The man transferred the snake into his right hand, and the critter bit him a second time, according to his widow.

Lester dumped the snake into an empty toolbox in the bed of his pickup truck and was rushed home to meet an ambulance his family had summoned.

Lester was taken to St John Medical Center, but passed away a short time later.

Doctors told his widow that Lester died as a result of the rattlesnake bites exacerbated by his pre-existing heart condition.

After Lester's death, the snake was removed from his vehicle in a pillowcase (pictured)

Tulsa County Game Warden Carlos Gomez was called in to remove the rattlesnake from Lester’s vehicle parked in a nearby garage.

Gomez used a special hook to extract the reptile from the toolbox, placed it in a hospital pillowcase, and handed it over to a professional snake catcher, who later released it into the woods.

Gomez says up to 8,000 people suffer snake bites across the US each year, but fatalities are exceedingly rare.